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HIS BIG OPPORTUNITY 


By Amy Le Feuvre. 


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“Quite a little party of friends to see him off.” (p. 155) 

[ Frontispiece . 



His Big Opportunity 



AMY LE FEUVRE 

Author of “Probable Sons,” “The Odd One,” 
“Teddy’s Button,” etc., etc. 



New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

Publishers of Evangelical Literature 




16805 


Copyright, i8y8 

BY 

Fleming H. Revell Company 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED- 

1833 . 


> 


Contents 


CHAP. PAGE 

I. On the Garden Wall 9 

II. A Song 19 

III. Making an Opportunity 29 

IV. An Awkward Visit 38 

V. A Lost Donkey 50 

VI. Rob 62 

VII. A Walnut Story 73 

VIII. The Bertrams’ Leap 84 

IX. Making His Leap 97 

X. A Cripple 109 

XI. A Gift to the Queen 117 

XII. Letters 129 

XIII. Old Principle 139 

XIV. Heroes 152 

XV. An Unwelcome Proposal 164 

XVI. David and Jonathan 174 

XVII. Roy’s Big Opportunity 182 


7 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Old Principle Laughed at Dudley’s 

Notion. ...... Facing page 38 

“Now Then, You Rascals, What Are 

You Doing to My Donkey?” . . “ “ 53 

“ He’s Dead, Ben — He’s Dead ! ” . . “ “ 95 

Quite a Little Party of Friends to 

See Him Off. .... “ “ 155 


8 


I 


ON THE GAEDEN WALL 

They were sitting astride on the top of the 
old garden wall. Below them on the one side 
stretched a sweet old-fashioned English garden 
lying in the blaze of an August sun. In the 
distance, peeping from behind a wealth of 
creepers and ivy was the old stone house. It 
was at an hour in the afternoon when every- 
thing seemed to be at a standstill : two or 
three dogs lay on the soft green lawn fast 
asleep, an old gardener smoking his pipe and 
sitting on the edge of a wheelbarrow seemed 
following their example ; and birds and insects 
only kept up a monotonous and drowsy dirge. 

But the two little figures clad in white 
cricketting flannels, were full of life and mo- 
tion as they kept up an eager and animated 
conversation on their lofty seat. 

“You see, Dudley, if nothing happens, we 
will make it happen ! ” 

“ Then it isn’t an opportunity.” 
u Yes it is. Why if those old fellows in 
olden times hadn’t ridden off to look for ad- 
ventures they would never have found them 
at home.” 


9 


lo His Big Opportunity 

“ But an opportunity isn’t an adventure.” 

“Yes, it is, you stupid! An adventure is 
something that happens, and so is an oppor- 
tunity.” 

The little speaker who announced this logic 
so dogmatically, was a slim delicate boy with 
white face, and large brown eyes, and a crop 
of dark unruly curls that had a trick of defy- 
ing the hair cutter’s skill, and of growing so 
erratically that “ Master Roy’s head,” was pro- 
nounced quite unmanageable. 

He was not a pretty boy, and was in delicate 
health, constantly subject to attacks of bron- 
chitis and asthma, yet his spirit was un- 
daunted, and as his old nurse often said, “ his 
soul was too strong for his body.” 

Dudley, his little cousin, who sat facing him, 
on the contrary, was a true specimen of a 
handsome English boy. Chestnut hair and 
bright blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and an upright 
sturdy carriage, did much to commend him to 
every one’s favor: yet for force of character 
and intellect he came far behind Roy. 

He sat now pondering Roy’s words, and 
kicking his heels against the Avail, Avhilst his 
eyes roved over the road on the outside of the 
garden and away to a dark pine Avood oppo- 
site. 

“Here’s one coming then,” he said, sud- 
denly ; “ now you’ll have to use it.” 


On the Garden Wall 


1 1 


“Who? What? Where?” 

“ It’s a man ; a tramp, a traveller or a high- 
wayman, and he may be all the lot together ! 
It’s an opportunity, isn’t it ? ” 

Roy looked down the narrow lane outside 
the wall, and saw the figure of a man ap- 
proaching. His face lit up with eager resolve. 

“He’s a stranger, Dudley; he doesn’t be- 
long to the village ; we’ll ask him who he is.” 

“ Hulloo, you fellow,” shouted Dudley in his 
shrill boyish treble; “where do you come 
from ? You don’t belong to this part.” 

The man looked up at the boys curiously. 

“ And who may ye be, a- wall climbin’ and a 
breakin’ over in folks’ gardens to steal their 
fruit ? ” 

“ Don’t you cheek us,” said Roy, throwing 
his head up, and putting, on his most autocratic 
air ; “ this is our garden and our wall, and the 
road you’re walking on is our private road ! ” 

“ Then don’t you take to insulting passers- 
by, or it will be the worse for ye ! ” retorted 
the man. 

The boys were silent. 

“I’m sure he isn’t an opportunity,” whis- 
pered Dudley. 

But Roy would not be disconcerted. 

“ Look here,” he said, adopting a concilia- 
tory tone ; “ we’re looking out for an oppor- 
tunity to do some one some good, and then 


12 


His Big Opportunity 


you came along, that’s why we spoke to you. 
Now just tell us if we can do it to you.” 

“Yes,” Dudley struck in: “you seem 
rather down, do you want anything that we 
can give you ? ” 

The ifian glanced up at them to see if this 
was boyish impudence, but the faces bending 
down were earnest and grave enough, and he 
said* with a short laugh, — 

“ Oh, I reckon there be just a few things 
I’m in want of ; but as to your givin’ of them 
to me that be quite a different matter. Don’t 
suppose ye carry about jobs ready to hand in 
yer pockets, nor yet my set of tools in pawn, 
nor yet a pint o’ beer and a good hunk of 
bread and meat for a starvin’ feller ! May be 
ye could tell me the way to the nearest pub, 
and stand me a drink , there ! ” 

Boy thrust his hand immediately into his 
pocket, and pulled out amongst a confused 
mass of boys’ treasures a sixpence. 

“ I’ll give you this if it will do you good,” 
he said, holding it up proudly. “ I’ve kept it 
a whole two days without spending it. It 
will give you some beer and bread and .cheese, 
I expect. Is there anything else we can do 
for you ? ” 

“ If you go to Mr. Selby, the rector, he’ll 
put you in the way of work,” shouted out 
Dudley, as the man catching the sixpence 


On the Garden Wall 


l 3 

flung down to him slouched off with muttered 
thanks. 

“No parsons for me,” was the rejoinder. 

The boys watched liis figure disappear down 
the road, and then Roy said reflectively, — 

“Too many opportunities like that would 
empty our pockets.” 

“And I wonder if it will really do him 
good,” said Dudley ; then glancing over into 
the garden, he added: “Here comes Aunt 
Judy, she’s calling us.” 

Down the winding gravel path came their 
aunt; a strikingly handsome woman. She 
looked up at her little nephews and laughed 
when she came to the wall. 

“ Oh, you imps, do you know I’ve been hunt- 
ing for you everywhere ! You will have a fall 
like Humpty Dumpty if you choose such high 
perches. Now what comfort can you find, 
may I ask, in such a blazing breakneck seat ? 
Do you find broken bottles a soft cushion ? ” 

“ We’ve cleared those rotten things away 
here,” said Dudley, preparing to clamber 
down ; “ it’s our watch tower, and we’ve a first- 
rate view, you just come up and see ! ” 

“ Thank you, I would rather not attempt 
the climb. What have you been talking 
about ? Jonathan looks as grave as a judge.” 

Roy looked down at his aunt without mov- 
ing. 


14 His Big Opportunity 

“ If you won’t laugh or tell granny, we’ll 
tell you, because you never split if you say you 
won’t.” 

“ All right, I promise.” 

“Well, you see, this morning Mr. Selby 
gave us this for our copy : ‘ As ye have op- 

portunity do good unto all men,’ and he told 
us of a King somebody — I forget who — who 
used to write down at the end of each day on 
a slate, — if he hadn’t done any good to any 
one, — ‘I’ve lost a day.’ We thought it would 
be a good plan to start this afternoon and see 
what we could do. We tried on old Hal 
first, but he didn’t seem to like it. He was 
uncovering some of the frames, and so we 
went and uncovered all of them, and then lie 
said we had spoilt some of his seedlings, and 
nearly went into a fit with rage. I turned the 
hose on him to cool him down. He is asleep 
in the wheelbarrow now; we can see him 
from here. We really came up here to get 
out of his way, his language was awful ! ” 

“ Come down, you monkey. I can’t carry on 
a conversation with you so far above me. 
Softly now. Bless the boys, how they can 
stick their toes into such a wall is past my 
comprehension ! Granny wants to see you be- 
fore your tea, so come along. And who else 
has been benefited by your good deeds?” 

They were walking toward the house by 


On the Garden Wall 


15 


this time, each boy hanging on to one of her 
arms. It was easy to see the affection between 
them. 

Dudley eagerly poured out the story of the 
tramp, and Miss Bertram listened sympathet- 
ically. 

“ Never send a man to a public house, boys 
— and never give him money for beer. Per- 
haps he may have come down in the world 
through love of it. You know I am always 
ready to give any one a relief ticket. That’s 
the best way to help such cases.” 

“Yes, but that would be your doing not 
ours.” 

“ Money is a difficult way of helping,” said 
Miss Bertram ; “ don’t get into the habit of 
thinking money is the only thing that will do 
people good. It too often does them harm.” 

“ Oh, I say ! that’s hard lines on me, when 
my last sixpence has gone, and I was going to 
get a stunning ball old Principle has in his 
shop ! ” 

Miss Bertram laughed at Roy’s woe-begone 
little face. 

“Never mind,” she said, consolingly; “your 
intentions were good, and you must buy your 
experience by mistakes as you go through life. 
Now go into granny softly, both of you, and 
talk nicely to her. She will be one person you 
can do good to, by brightening her up a little.” 


16 His Big Opportunity 

Dudley made a grimace at Roy ; but both 
boys entered the house, and crept into a cool 
half -darkened drawing-room on tiptoe, with 
hushed voices and sober demeanor. A stern 
looking old lady sat upright in her easy chair, 
knitting busily. She greeted the boys rather 
coldly. 

“What have you been doing with your- 
selves? I sent for you some time ago. Do 
you not remember that I like you to come to 
me every afternoon about this hour ? ” 

“ Yes, granny,” said Roy, climbing into an 
easy chair opposite her; “we were coming 
only we didn’t know it was so late : we were 
busy talking.” 

“ Boys’ chatter ought not to come before a 
grandmother’s wishes.” 

There was silence; then Dudley struck in 
boldly : 

“We were talking about good things, 
granny. It wasn’t chatter. Roy and I are 
going to look out for opportunities every day 
of our lives. Do you think an opportunity is 
the same as an adventure ? I don’t think you 
have adventures of doing good, do you ? ” 

“Yes,” asserted Roy, bobbing up and down 
in his chair excitedly ; “ King Arthur and his 
knights did always. They never rode through 
a wood without having an adventure, and it 
was always doing good, wasn’t it, granny ? ” 


On the Garden Wall 


l 7 


Conversation never slackened when the boys 
were present, and Mrs. Bertram, though shrink- 
ing at all times from their high spirits and love 
of fun, yet looked forward every day to their 
short visit. She was a confirmed invalid, and 
rarely left the house, and her daughter Julia 
in consequence took her place as mistress over 
the household. 

Three years before, Roy and Dudley arrived 
within a month of each other, to find a home 
with their grandmother. Roy, whose proper 
name was Fitzroy, came from Canada, both 
his parents having died out there. Dudley’s 
father had died when he was a baby, but his 
mother had married again in India ; and upon 
her death which occurred not long after, his 
stepfather had sent him home to his grand- 
mother. From the first day that they met, 
the boys were sworn friends ; and their aunt 
dubbed them “ David ” and “ Jonathan ” after 
having been an unseen witness of a very 
solemn vow transacted between them under 
the shadow of the pines, only a week after 
their meeting. 

Roy’s delicate health was a cause of great 
anxiety to his grandmother, and if it had not 
been for Miss Bertram’s wise tact and judg- 
ment, he would have been imprisoned in one 
room and swathed in cotton wool most of the 
year round. He had the advantage of having 


18 His Big Opportunity 

an old nurse who had brought him up from his 
birth, and had come from Canada with him ; 
and she was as vigilant and experienced in 
managing his ailments as could be desired. 
Poor little Roy, with his uncertain health, was 
heir to a very large property of his father’s 
not far away ; and the responsibilities awaiting 
him, and the knowledge that he would have so 
much power in his hands, perhaps had the 
effect of making him weigh life more seriously 
than would most boys of his age. 

Later on after their visit to their grand- 
mother was over, and tea had been finished in 
the nursery, he wandered into his own little 
room, and leaning out of his window, looked up 
into the clear sky above. 

“ I feel so small,” was his Avistf ul thought, 
“ and heaven is so big ; but I’ll do something 
big enough to get, ‘ Well done good and faith- 
ful servant,’ said to me when I die, I hope. 
And I’ll try every day till I do it 1 ” 


II 


A SONG 

“ Come here, boys. I have had some new 
music from town, and here is a song that you 
will like to listen to, I expect.” 

It was Miss Bertram who spoke, and her 
appearance in the nursery just saved a free 
fight. Wet afternoons were always a sore 
trial to the boys : their mornings were gener- 
ally spent at the Rectory under Mr. Selby’s 
tuition, but their afternoons were their own, 
and it was hard to be kept within four walls, 
and expected to make no sound to disturb 
their grandmother’s afternoon nap. 

The old nurse was nodding in her chair, and 
her charges with jackets off and rolled up shirt 
sleeves were advancing toward each other on 
tiptoe, and muttering their threats in wrathful 
whispers. 

“ I’ll show you I’m no coddle ! ” 

“ And I’ll show you I’m no lazy lubber ! ” 

At the sound of their aunt’s voice they 
stopped ; and each picked up his jacket with 
some confusion, Dudley saying contentedly, 
“ All right, old fellow, pax now, and we’ll fin- 
ish it up to-morrow.” 

“ Aunt Judy, do let us come into the draw- 
19 


20 


His Big Opportunity 


ing-room then, and hear you sing ; we’re sick 
of this old nursery, we’re too big to be kept 
here.” 

Koy spoke scornfully, but his aunt shook 
her head at him : 

“ Do you know this is the room I love best 
in the house ? Your father and I used it till 
we were double your age, and no place ever 
came up to it in our estimation. Don’t be 
little prigs and think yourselves men before 
you’re boys ! ” 

“Why, Aunt Judy, we’ve been boys ever 
since we were born ! ” 

“ I look upon you as infants now,” retorted 
Miss Bertram, laughing. “Come along — tip- 
toe past granny’s room, please, and no racing 
downstairs.” 

“We’ll slide down the rails instead, we al- 
ways do when granny is asleep.” 

“ JSTot when I am with you, thank you.” 

A few minutes afterward, and the boys 
were standing on either side of the piano lis- 
tening with delight to the song that has stirred 
so many boyish hearts : 

“ Tis a story, what a story, tho’ it never made a noise 
Of cherub-headed Jake and Jim, two little drummer boys 
Of all the wildest scamps that e’er provoked a sergeant’s eye 
They were first in every wickedness, but one thing could not 
lie, 

And they longed to face the music, when the tidings from afar 
Brought the news of wild disaster in a wild and savage war. 


A Song 


21 


Said the Colonel, ‘ How can babies of battle bear the brunt ? ’ 
Said the little orphan rascals, ‘ please Sir, take us to the front 1 
And we’ll play to the men in the far-off land, 

When their eyes for home are dim ; 

If the Indians come, they shall hear our drum 
In the van where the fight is grim. 

Our lads we know, to the death will go. 

If they’re led by Jake and Jim.’ 


“ In the battle, ’mid the rattle, and the deadly hail of lead, 
The two were in their glory— What did they know of dread ? 
And fierce the heathen cry arose across the Indian plain, 

And ’twas Home, for the bravest there would never be again, 
The raw recruits were restless, and they counted not the cost, 
And the Colonel shouted, * Steady lads, stand fast, or else we’re 
lost.’ 

A rush ! ’twas like an avalanche ! a clash of steel and red ! 

A shock like mountain thunder, then the reg’ment turned and 
fled. 

‘ Give me the drum, take the fife,’ said Jake, 

‘ And with all your might and main, 

Play the old step now, for the reg’ment’s sake 
As they scatter along the plain. 

We’ll play them up to the front once more, 

Tho’ we never come back again.’ 


“ Then might the world have seen two little dots in red, 
Facing the foe, when the rest had turned and fled ! 

So young, so brave and gay, while others held their breath, 
They played ev’ry inch of the way to meet their death ; 

And then at last the reg’ment turned, for vengeance ev’ry man 
To save the lads they turned and fought as only demons can ; 
They swept the foe before them across the mountain rim, 

But victory that day could never bring back Jake or Jim. 

And they silently stood where the children fell, 

Not a word of triumph said, 

For they knew who had led as they bowed each head, 
And looked at the quiet dead ; 

That the fight was won, and the reg’ment saved, 

By those two little dots in red.” 


22 


His Big Opportunity 


Miss Bertram stole a glance at the boys’ 
faces as she finished singing. 

With a wriggle and a twist Dudley turned 
his back upon her; but not before she had 
seen the blue eyes swimming with tears, and 
heard a choking sob being hastily swallowed. 
Roy stood erect, his little face quivering with 
emotion, and his usually pale cheek flushed a 
deep crimson, whilst his small determined 
mouth and chin looked more resolute and dar- 
ing than ever. His hands thrust deep in the 
pockets of his knickerbockers he looked straight 
before him and repeated with emphasis, 

“They played every inch of the way to 
meet their death ! ” 

“ Regular little heroes, weren’t they ? ” said 
Miss Bertram. 

“Rather,” came from Roy’s lips, and then 
without another word he ran out of the room. 

“Do you like it, David?” Miss Bertram 
asked, touching Dudley lightly on the shoul- 
der. 

“Ho — I — don’t — it makes a fellow in a blue 
funk.” And two fists were hastily brushed 
across the eyes. 

“ Shall I sing you something more cheer- 
ful?” 

“Ho, thanks, not to-night, I think I’ll go to 
Roy.” 

And Dudley, too, made his exit, leaving his 


A Song 23 

aunt touched and amused at the effect of the 
song. 

An hour after the rain had ceased, and the 
sun was shining out. Down the village street 
walked the two boys enjoying their freedom 
more soberly than was their wont. 

“We must, we must, we must be heroes, 
Dudley ! ” 

“ Yes, if we get a chance.” 

“But why shouldn’t we have it as well as 
those two boys. I wonder sometimes what 
God meant us to do when He made us ! And 
I’m not going to be in the dumps because I’m 
not very strong. For look at Nelson : old 
Selby told us he was always very seedy and 
shaky, always ill ; and not being big in body 
doesn’t matter, for Nelson was a little man 
and so was Napoleon, and lots of the great 
men have been short and stumpy and hideous ! 
I mean to do something before I die, if only 
an opportunity will come ! Do you remember 
the story of the little chap in Holland, who 
put his hand in the hole in the sand bank, and 
kept the whole ocean from coming in and 
washing away hundreds of towns and villages ? 
If I could only do a thing like that, something 
that would do good to millions of people; 
something that would be worth living for ! If 
I could save somebody’s life from fire, or 


24 His Big Opportunity 

drowning, or some kind of danger ! Don’t you 
long for something of that sort, eh ? ” 

“ I don’t know that I do,” was the slow re- 
sponse ; “ but I should like you to get a chance 
of it if you want it so much.” 

“ Oh, wasn’t it splendid of those two little 
chaps — a whole regiment ! And only those 
two who didn’t run away ! I think I could 
stand fire like that, couldn’t you ? ” 

“ I would with you.” 

“ But I don’t expect I’ll ever go into the 
army.” This in sorrowful tones. 

“ Why not ? ” 

“ Oh, they’d never have me. I’m too thin 
round the chest ; nurse says I’m like a bag of 
bones, and I wouldn’t make a smart soldier. 
How you’d be a splendid one, no one could be 
ashamed of you.” 

“ Well, I won’t go without you.” 

“But I’ll do something worth living for,” 
repeated Boy, tossing up his head and giving a 
stamp as he spoke ; “ and I’ll seize the first 
opportunity that comes.” 

Dudley was silent. They had now reached 
the low stone bridge over the river, a favorite 
resort amongst all the village boys for fish- 
ing; and quite a little group of them were 
collected there. Boy and Dudley were 
welcomed eagerly as though perhaps at times 
they were inclined to assume patronizing and 


A Song 


25 


masterful airs ; yet their extreme generosity 
and love for all country sport made them gen- 
eral favorites with the villagers. 

Roy was soon in the midst of an eager dis- 
cussion about the best bait for trout ; and was 
presently startled by a heavy splash over the 
bridge. Looking up, to his amazement, he saw 
Dudley struggling in the water. 

“ Help, Roy, I’m drowning ! ” 

Both boys were capital swimmers, but Roy 
saw that Dudley seemed incapable of keeping 
himself up, and in one second he threw off his 
jacket, and dived head foremost off the bridge 
to the rescue. The current of the river was 
strong here, for a mill wheel was only a short 
distance off ; and it was hard work to swim 
safely ashore. Roy accomplished it success- 
fully amidst the cheers of the admiring group 
on the bridge ; and when once on dry ground 
again, neither of the boys seemed the worse 
for the wetting. In the hubbub that ensued 
Dubley was not questioned as to the cause of 
the accident ; but it appeared that his feet had 
got entangled in some string and netting that 
one of the boys had brought with him to the 
bridge, and it was this that had prevented him 
from swimming. 

“ It’s awfully nice that I had the chance of 
helping you,” said Roy, as the two boys were 
running home as fast as they could to change 


26 


His Big Opportunity 


their wet clothes ; “ I didn’t hurt you in the 
water, did I? I believe I gave a pretty 
good tug to your hair, I was awfully glad you 
hadn’t had your hair cut lately.” 

“You’ve saved my life,” said Dudley, star- 
ing at Roy with a peculiar gravity ; “if you 
hadn’t dashed over to me, I should have been 
sucked down by that old wheel, and should 
have been a dead man by this time. You’ve 
done to-day what you were longing to do.” 

“ Yes, but I tell you I felt awfully squeam- 
ish when I saw you in the water and thought 
I might be too late.” 

As they neared the house, Roy’s pace slack- 
ened. 

“ Go on, Dudley, and leave me, I can’t get 
on, I believe that horrid old asthma is coming 
on, I’ll follow slowly.” 

“I’m not quite such a cad,” was Dudley’s 
retort, and then hoisting Roy up on his back, 
as if that mode of proceeding was quite a 
usual occurrence, he made his way into the 
house. 

They crept up to their bedrooms and 
changed their wet clothes before they showed 
themselves to any one. Then Dudley waxed 
eloquent for the occasion, and the story was 
told in drawing-room and servants’ hall, till 
every one was loud in their praises of the little 
rescuer. 


A Song 


2 7 


“ lie looks too small to have done it,” said 
Miss Bertram, smiling ; for though Boy was 
Dudley’s senior by two months, he was a good 
head shorter. 

Boy got rather impatient under this adula- 
tion. 

“ Oh, shut up, Dudley, don’t be such an ass, 
as if I could have done anything else ! ” 

An hour after, and Boy was sitting up in 
bed speechless and panting, with the bron- 
chitis kettle in full play, and nurse trying 
vainly to battle with one of his worst bron- 
chial attacks. 

“ I say ” — he gasped at last ; “ do you think 
— I’m going to die — this time ? ” 

“ Surely no, my pet. It’s more asthma than 
bronchitis ; I’ll pull you round, please God.” 

Midnight came, and when nurse left the 
room for a minute she found a small figure 
crouched down outside the door. 

It was Dudley. 

“ Oh, nurse, he’s very bad, isn’t he ? Is he 
going to die ? What shall I do ! I shall be 
his murderer, I’ve killed him ! ” 

Dudley’s eyes were wild with terror, and 
nurse tried to soothe him. 

“ Don’t talk nonsense, but go to bed ; he’ll 
be better in the morning, I hope. It’s just the 
wet, and the strain of it that’s done it. 
There’s none to blame. You couldn’t help it, 


28 


His Big Opportunity 


and he’s been as bad as this before and pulled 
through. Go to bed, laddie, and ask God to 
make him better.” 

Dudley crept back to bed, and flung himself 
down on his pillows with a fit of bitter weep- 
ing. 

“ She says I couldn’t help it ; oh, God, make 
him better, make him better, do forgive me ! 
I never thought of this ! ” 


Ill 


MAKING AN OPPORTUNITY 

It was two days before Dudley was allowed 
to see the little invalid. The doctor had been 
in constant attendance ; but all danger was 
over now, and Roy as usual was rapidly pick- 
ing up his strength again. 

“ His constitution has wonderful rallying pow- 
ers,” the old doctor said ; “ he is like a bit of 
india rubber ! ” 

It seemed to Dudley that Roy’s face had 
got wonderfully white and small ; and there 
was a weary worn look in his eyes, as he 
turned round to greet him. 

“ How sit down and talk to him, but don’t 
let him do the talking,” was nurse’s advice as 
she left the boys together. 

Dudley sat down by the bed, and squeezed 
hold of the little hand held out to him. 

“ I’m so sorry, old chap,” he said, nervously ; 
“ do you feel really better ? I’ve been so 
miserable.” 

“ I’m first-rate now,” was the cheerful re- 
sponse ; “ it’s awfully nice getting your breath 
back again ; it’s only made me feel a little 
tired, that’s all ! ” 

“ It was all me ! ” 


29 


3 ° 


His Big Opportunity 


“ Why that has been my comfort,” said Boy, 
with shining eyes ; “ I felt when I was very 
bad, that if I died, I might have lived for 
something. It would have been lovely to die 
for you, Dudley — at least you know to have 
got myself ill from that reason ; it’s so very 
tame when I get bad from nothing at all ; but 
I’m well again now, so I know God is letting 
me live to do something else ! ” 

“I was the one that ought to have been 
made ill to punish me,” blurted out Dudley, 
and then he was silent. 

Boy’s eyes rested on his flushed face with 
some wonder. 

“ It wasn’t wicked of you to fall into the 
river ; you couldn’t help it.” 

A crimson flush crept over Dudley’s face up 
to the very roots of his hair ; he picked the 
fringe of the counterpane restlessly between 
his fingers, and kicked his heels against the 
legs of his chair. Silence again : Boy looked 
steadily at him ; and then an expression of as- 
tonishment and bewilderment flitted across his 
face, followed by one of strange conviction. 

“ Dudley, look at me.” 

Boy’s tone was peremptory, but Dudley 
never moved, until the command was given in 
a sharper tone. Then he raised his head, but 
his blue eyes had a guilty harassed look in 
them, and he dropped them quickly again. 


Making an Opportunity 31 

“ It’s no good ; I’ve found you out. Did 
you tie up your feet like that yourself ? ” 

After a minute, in a sepulchral tone, came 
the words, “ Yes, when you weren’t looking ! ” 

Roy lay back on his pillows with a sigh. 

A little disappointment mingled with his 
feelings which were somewhat mixed. After 
a pause, he said, “ You are a good fellow ! To 
think of doing that for me ! What would you 
have done if I hadn’t jumped in to save you ? ” 

Then Dudley raised his head : 

“I knew you wouldn’t fail me,’* he said, 
triumphantly ; “ I knew I could trust you ! ” 

Roy put out his thin little arm and drew 
Dudley’s bonny face down by the side of his 
on the pillow. 

“ I don’t think,” he whispered, “ that even I 
could have been plucky enough to do that — 
not in sight of that old mill wheel ! ” 

Neither spoke for a few minutes ; then Dud- 
ley said, 

“ I should have been your murderer if you 
had died. That has been the worst of it. But 
you did like saving a drowning fellow, didn’t 
you ? ” 

“ Ye-es, but it wasn’t quite real — at least it 
isn’t as if you really had tumbled in by acci- 
dent.” 

“Well but I only did what you said we 
must do. I made an opportunity.” 


3 2 


His Big Opportunity 


And after this remark Roy had nothing 
more to say ; but neither he nor Dudley' ever 
enlightened any one as to the true cause of the 
accident. 

When Roy had quite recovered, the two 
boys set out one afternoon to visit their great- 
est friend in the village. This was the old 
man every one called “old Principle.” He 
lived by himself in a curious three-cornered 
house at the extreme end of the village, and 
kept a little general shop where everything 
but eatables could be obtained. 

“ I keep every article that man, woman, or 
child can want for their use, for their homes, 
their work or their play ; but food and drink 
I will not cater for. It’s against my principles 
to sell perishable goods, and I will not be the 
one to minister to the very lowest animal 
wants of my fellow creatures.” 

This was his favorite speech, from which it 
may be judged he was somewhat of a charac- 
ter. 

He had several hobbies, and was a w ell-read 
man and superior to those around him; and 
perhaps this was the cause of his holding him- 
self aloof from most of the villagers. They 
termed him “cranky and cracked,” but his 
goods were always acceptable, and he was 
thoroughly successful in his business. When 
his shop was closed he would go out on the 


33 


Making an Opportunity 

hills, and there spend his time studying geol- 
ogy and botany. He knew the name of 
every plant and insect, and the strata of the 
earth for many miles round ; and it was out of 
doors that the boys first made his acquaint- 
ance. 

They found him on this afternoon seated be- 
hind his counter mending an eight-day clock. 

“Well, old Principle, how are you?” said 
Roy, climbing up to the counter and sitting 
comfortably on it with his legs dangling in 
mid air ; “ we haven’t seen you for ages.” 

“Are you going out this evening?” en- 
quired Dudley, as he proceeded to follow 
Roy’s example. 

“To be sure, when my work is done,” re- 
sponded the old man pushing up his spectacles 
and regarding the boys with kindly eyes; 
“ these light evenings are my delight, as you 
know. If you sit still till I have finished this 
clock, I will show you a treasure I found yes- 
terday.” 

“ Can you mend everything ? ” asked Roy, 
curiously ; “ I never knew you understood 
about clocks.” 

“ I’ve learned to mend most things,” was the 
answer ; “ it isn’t given to every one to make, 
and I’m one of the menders in the world not 
the makers. There’s one thing I can’t mend 
— and that is broken hearts.” 


34 


His Big Opportunity 

There was silence : Boy broke it at last by 
saying with knitted brow, “I’d rather be a 
maker than a mender, but lots of people aren’t 
either.” 

“ Quite right,” nodded the old man ; “ most 
folk are breakers.” 

“ I wish I was as clever as you,” said Dud- 
ley; “you mend umbrellas, and kettles, and 
plates, and windows, and gates, and all sorts. 
How did you learn ? ” 

“Well, I ain’t ashamed of owning that my 
father was just a travelling tinker, and when 
I was a little fellow I used to go round with 
him and see him do most things. It was from 
travelling through the country I learned to love 
it so. And my father, he was a thoughtful 
man, and when I used to ask where the tin 
came from, and where the iron and where the 
lead, he took to learning of it up so that he 
could answer me ; and then I came to find that 
most of our comforts come from underground, 
and so I fell to digging. Ah, youngsters, earth 
is a wonderful treasure house ! ” 

The clock was done. Old Principle put it 
carefully by and then mounted on some 
wooden steps, and took down a tin saucepan. 
The boys knew the shelf well ; as though ap- 
parently it was just a row of tinware for sale, 
many a pot and pan held treasures that geolo- 
gists would have given a great deal to possess. 


35 


Making an Opportunity 

Now when old Principle held out a peculiar 
shaped stone with loving pride, Roy and Dud- 
ley pressed forward to look at it. 

“ I know, it’s a Roman hammer,” shouted 
out Dudley. 

“ It’s a Saxon jug,” suggested Roy. 

“It’s part of a jaw of a mammoth many 
thousands of years old, and there are two 
teeth in perfect preservation,” old Principle 
said solemnly. 

“ Where did you find it ? ” 

“ Ah, you must come and see ! In a cave 
that I have only just discovered, and which 
must originally have been by the side of a 
river. I’ll take you there to-night if you can 
get permission to come.” 

Nothing delighted the boys more than an 
expedition with old Principle. They prom- 
ised to be down at his shop punctually at half- 
past seven that evening, and then the conver- 
sation drifted into other channels. 

“ Old Principle, do you think we ought to 
make opportunities ? ” questioned Dudley, pres- 
ently ; “ Roy thinks we ought, and I did make 
one the other day, but it didn’t turn out well.” 

“ Ay, Master Roy is always for making,” 
said the old man with a smile ; “ he will try 
and cram his life with what will come fast 
enough naturally, if he only waits.” 

“ But will it ? ” questioned Roy, flushing up 


36 His Big Opportunity 

with eagerness ; “ do you think it will ? I’m 
longing to do something big and grand and 
good ; I mayn’t live to grow up you know, and 
I’m sure we’re meant to do something when 
we’re boys.” 

“ We’re trying to do good to all men as we 
have opportunity,” said Dudley, gravely. 

“ Ay, stick to that, boys, and you’ll succeed. 
There’s none too small to be true philanthro- 
pists.” 

“ What is a philanthropist ? ” asked Roy. 

“ A man who benefits his fellow creatures. 
’Tis a good principle to keep in mind.” 

“ But it’s difficult for boys to do grown-up 
people good. They always do boys good.” 

“Now look here, Master Roy. I’ve lived 
and learned where you haven’t, and I try and 
pass my principles on to you. That’s how I 
do you good. You come to me and take what 
I give you and seeing you act out the advice I 
offers you does me good. You do me good 
too, every time you comes to see me; it’s 
cheery to hear and see you.” 

“ But that’s very tame for us,” said Roy, a 
little scornfully. 

“ Oh, well, if your own likes must come into 
the question, it’s a different story ! I didn’t 
know it mattered about our feelings as long as 
the good is done ! ’Tis a bad principle to try 
to please others only when it pleases ourselves.” 


37 


Making an Opportunity- 

Hoy looked a little ashamed of himself. He 
said no more on the subject, and shortly after 
he and Dudley ran home to tea. 

They were very disappointed when their 
aunt refused to let them go out again that 
evening. 

“ It is too damp a night for Jonathan to be 
wandering through wet grass and bog. You 
can go, David, if you like, but he must wait for 
• another opportunity.” 

“I shan’t go without Hoy,” said Dudley, 
sturdily. 

“ We’ll come and make a cave in the attic,” 
suggested Hoy, trying to be cheerful. 

And for the rest of that evening they were 
absorbed in making a great dust and racket 
amongst lumber boxes far away from their 
grandmother’s hearing. 


AN AWKWARD VISIT 


“ And how do you know a river has been 
here ? ” 

“ By the soil and by the relics I have found. 
Look at this fossil. Do you see the outline of 
the fish ? Fish don’t live on dry ground.” 

“ There might have been a fishman passing 
by who dropped one out of his cart.” 

Old Principle laughed at Dudley’s sceptical 
notion, and went on shovelling out earth with 
great alacrity. It was Saturday afternoon : 
old Principle had shut up his shop and taken 
the boys up to the hills surrounding the little 
village, where in a ravine between two precipi- 
tous crags, in the midst of a green bower of 
ferns and moss, he was hard at work excava- 
ting an old cave that had been buried for 
many years out of sight. 

Dudley and Roy were eagerly helping and 
chattering as only boys know how. 

“This little ravine has been formed by a 
mountain stream rushing down,” continued 
the old man, resting on his spade for a minute ; 
“ ’tis a good principle, Master Dudley, to trust 
grown-up folks’ knowledge better than your 
own.” 


38 



“Old Principle laughed at Dudley’s notion.’ 


{Page 38) 



An Awkward Visit 


39 


“ I wish,” said Roy, reflectively, “ that this 
cave was nearer home ; it would be so lovely 
to come out whenever we wanted to, wouldn’t 
it, Dudley ? Perhaps some king has hidden 
away in it, or soldier when he was pursued by 
his enemies ! ” 

“ Hulloo,” said Dudley, looking up the hill ; 
“here is such a funny looking woman coming 
down with a donkey, her skirt is nearty up to 
her knees, and she has a man’s boots on.” 

Old Principle paused in his work, and in a 
minute or two greeted the newcomer. 

“ Good-afternoon, Mrs. Cullen, how’s your 
husband to-day ? ” 

“ Badly, very badly, but I’s forced to leave 
he. I lock the door and put the key in me 
pocket, for I’s bin up the hill yonner cuttin’ 
peat sin seven o’clock this mornin’. He do 
get awfu’ lonesome, he say, an’ if me niece 
hadn’t a married and gone to ’Merica, I should 
have kept she to tend him.” 

“ Who is she ? ” asked Roy, as after a few 
more words the woman moved on. 

“ She lives at the bottom of the hill over 
there. Her husband has been ill of consump- 
tion these last two years, and she works to 
support them both. She’s a hard-working 
woman, is Martha Cullen; she works in the 
fields harvesting just now ; if I could feel I’d 
be welcome I would go to sit with her husband 


4 o 


His Big Opportunity 


sometimes, but she’s very queer, she won’t let 
a neighbor come near him, I have tried more 
than once. It seems hard on him to be bed- 
ridden there day after day without a soul to 
speak to ; or any one to give him a drink ! ” 

Roy gazed thoughtfully after the retreating 
figure of the woman, and then turned his at- 
tention again to the cave. 

When an hour later he and Dudley were 
walking home footsore, and rather dirty, but 
with little bundles of treasures from the cave 
in their grubby hands, he startled his cousin 
by saying — 

“ To-morrow we’ll go and see Martha Cul- 
len’s husband. It’s an opportunity for us.” 

“ How shall we get in ? ” queried Dudley. 

“Climb in at the window. She told old 
Principle she would be out all day at Farmer 
Stubbs. We’ll go and do him good.” 

“ How?” 

“We’ll wash his face, and make him a cup 
of tea, and sweep his room, and give him his 
medicine,” responded Roy, readily; “that’s 
what nurse does when she goes to visit any of 
Aunt Judy’s sick people.” 

Dudley did not look as if he relished the 
prospect before him. 

“ That’s girls’ and women’s work,” he said ; 
“ boys needn’t do that kind of thing.” 

Roy flushed up angrily. 


An Awkward Visit 


41 


“ All right, if you don’t want to come, stay 
at home. It is a week since we started to do 
good when the opportunity came, and we 
haven’t done any good to any one. I’m not 
going to waste any more time.” 

Then after a pause he added, “ Besides I 
think it will be rather fun breaking into a 
strange cottage; we may have to get down 
the chimney.” 

At this Dudley’s face cleared. 

“ I’ll come,” he said ; “ we’ll go directly 
after dinner.” 

“ And we’ll stow away a little of our pud- 
ding to take him — sick people always have 
puddings.” 

They had no difficulty in carrying out this 
plan. They always dined in the nursery, and 
if nurse wondered at the amount of pudding 
that her charges managed to consume that 
day, her old eyes were not sharp enough to 
detect the transfer from plates to pockets. 
She sent them out into the garden to play, 
and they soon were scampering out of the 
back gate and along the road toward the little 
cottage at the bottom of the hill. 

It was a warm afternoon, and when they at 
length came near it they threw themselves 
down on the grass to rest. 

“We mustn’t frighten the old man,” said 
Dudley, gazing at the thatched cottage with a 


42 


His Big Opportunity 


critical eye. “I see the windows are tight 
shut in front, but there’s one open at the side ; 
we must creep up very quietly and get in be- 
fore he sees us, and then we can explain who 
we are.” 

“And if the window won’t do, we’ll try the 
chimney, it looks a jolly big one.” 

Then after a pause — 

“ I suppose he’ll be glad to see us ? ” 

“ Of course he will. He must be dreadfully 
dull all alone.” 

A few minutes after, they were holding a 
whispered consultation outside a small pantry 
window through which Roy was going to 
squeeze himself. 

“ I’ll go first. It will be a tight fit for you, 
Dudley, but I’ll give you a good pull through, 
and you must hold your breath well in.” 

“ It’s a kind of housebreaking,” Dudley said, 
ripples of fun passing over his face ; “I don’t 
mind visiting sick people if we go in at their 
windows like this ! ” 

But Roy’s little face was full of anxious 
gravity and purpose, and he checked Dudley’s 
inclination to laugh at once. 

He accomplished his part successfully, and 
then poor Dudley was hauled and pulled at 
till purple in the face, and breathless with ex- 
ertion, he exclaimed, “ I’m being squashed to 
a jelly ; let go, I can’t do it ! ” 


An Awkward Visit 


43 

“ Just one more try — now then — there, we’ve 
done it ! ” 

But Roy’s exclamation of delight was 
drowned in an awful crash, as Dudley swept 
olf some shelves a bowl of milk, two plates, 
and a cup of soup, and fell to the ground him- 
self in the midst of it all. 

Immediately a man’s voice called out, “ Who’s 
there ! Hi ! Help ! Thieves ! Help ! ” 

Roy darted into the kitchen, and confronted 
a tall, hollow-cheeked man who had scrambled 
out of his bed in the chimney corner, and stood 
trembling from head to foot clutching hold of 
the bed-post, and coughing violently. 

He did not seem at all appeased at the sight 
of the boys, but shook his fist at them in a 
paroxysm of fright and rage. 

“ Go away, you young blackguards — a rob- 
bin’ honest folk, and a darin’ to show yer 
impudent faces, and disturbin’ a dyin’ man, 
knowin’ as he’s too bad to give yer the hidin’ 
ye desarve ! ” 

Roy was quite taken aback. 

“ You’re quite mistaken — let us explain — 
we’ve come* to see you and do you good. 
Don’t you know who we are? We live at 
the Manor. Look — get back into bed again, 
you’ll take cold. We’ve brought you some 
pudding.” 

Here a parcel of currant pudding was taken 


44 His Big Opportunity 

out of his jacket pocket and held out tempt- 
ingly. 

“A’ don’t believe a word! Ye’ve been in 
the pantry a smashin’ the missus’ things, and 
a eatin’ and a drinkin’ all ye can lay hands on 
— begone, I tell ye ! ” 

“ That was me,” put in Dudley, edging up 
to the irate invalid ; “ you see the door was 
locked and we had to come in at the window, 
and I’m rather fat about the shoulders, and 
Boy jerked me through too quick and I fell 
amongst some plates. But we really haven’t 
stolen anything, we aren’t robbers ! ” 

“ Begone, ye rascals ! ” repeated the old man, 
and then such a violent fit of coughing took 
possession of him that he sank back on his bed 
perfectly exhausted and helpless, waving them 
away and shaking his head at them when they 
tried to approach him. 

Dudley looked doubtfully at Boy. 

“ I’m afraid we aren’t doing him any good,” 
he said, slowly. “ He won’t let us.” 

“No,” was Boy’s response, “we must go, I 
suppose. He is a foolish, stupid old man, or 
he would listen to us and let us explain.” 

Then advancing again to the sick man Boy 
said slowly and solemnly, “You’ll be very 
sorry one day when you know how you’ve 
treated us, and we shall never, never try to 
see you again, or bring you pudding or com- 


An Awkward Visit 


45 


fort yon, never ! If you had let us, we should 
have washed your face and hands, and made 
you some gruel, and given you your medicine, 
and then sat down by your bed and talked 
nicely to you, but you won’t let us do you 
good, so we shall leave you, and if you’re 
lonely locked in here all day with no one to 
speak to, it’s your own fault ! ” 

Then holding his head up bravely, Eoy 
marched out of the kitchen, and Dudley fol- 
lowed him with some misgivings as to his exit 
again by the pantry window. But Roy solved 
this difficulty. 

“ Look here, the key is in the back door ; we 
will unlock it and get out properly. I’m sorry 
we’ve smashed those plates.” 

They walked home in the deepest dejection ; 
as they went through the village there met 
them on the bridge the same man that had 
passed them when on the garden wall. He 
was much the worse for drink, and seemed in- 
clined to be quarrelsome. 

“ Look ’ee here now, I’ll just trouble ’ee to 
give me another sixpence, young gent, or I’ll 
help myself, and no nonsense, for I’m the feller 
for fightin’ ! ” 

He stood barring their way, lurching from 
side to side, and brandishing a stick in his hand. 

Neither of the boys were daunted. Dudley 
shouted out, 


4 6 


His Big Opportunity 


“Let us by at once, or we’ll make you! 
You’d better look out how you cheek us ! ” 
And Roy in a moment had his jacket off, 
and was rolling up his shirt sleeves. 

“ Come on, Dudley, we’ll lick him into shape, 
if he dares to touch us ! ” 

What might have befallen our two little 
heroes cannot be told, for at this critical junc- 
ture the rector came up, and in stern, command- 
ing tones ordered the man on. 

“That stamp of man is a pest in the 
place,” he said ; “ he won’t be influenced for 
good but hangs about the ale-houses and lives 
on the proceeds of his begging. If people 
only knew the harm they do in giving him 
money instead of a little honest work ! Well, 
boys, run along home, it’s a good thing I came 
up to stop a free fight. How do you think 
you two atoms could have got the better of 
a man like that? ‘Discretion is the better 
part of valor ’ remember. Keep your fists for 
a good cause. And never entice a drunken 
man to fight. It is a degrading spectacle.” 

Saying which Mr. Selby passed on, and Roy 
and Dudley walked home without saying a 
word to each other. 

By the time they had finished their tea, they 
recovered their spirits, and were in the midst 
of an exciting game of cricket in a field ad- 
joining the house with the old coachman and 


An Awkward Visit 


47 


the stable-boy, when a summons came to them 
from the house to come in at once to their 
aunt. 

“ What’s up, I wonder ! ” exclaimed Dudley, 
as he raced Eoy up to the front door ; “ Aunt 
Judy never sends for us at dinner time.” 

They found their aunt in the library. She 
was in her dinner dress and the dinner gong 
was sounding in the hall, but her face was 
puzzled as she turned from a woman talking 
to her, to the boys. 

“My nephews are little gentlemen; you 
must be mistaken,” she was saying. 

Eoy and Dudley recognized the woman 
immediately. It was Mrs. Cullen, and their 
hearts sank. 

“ Come here, boys,” Miss Bertram said ; “ I 
have been hearing a strange story from Mrs. 
Cullen, of two boys breaking into her house 
while she was away this afternoon, frighten- 
ing her dying husband so much that the doc- 
tor fears he won’t outlive the night, and 
breaking, and stealing things from her pantry. 
She insists upon it that it was you ; her hus- 
band told her so, but I cannot believe it. You 
would have no object in behaving so wickedly.” 

Dudley’s cheeks were crimson, and he hung 
his head in shame. Eoy, as usual, was not 
daunted. 

“It’s all a great mistake, Aunt Judy, we 


His Big Opportunity 


48 

never stole a thing; we went to see him and 
take him some pudding and do him good. We 
had to get in at the pantry window because 
the doors were all locked, and we did spill 
some milk and some soup, and broke a few 
plates. We couldn’t make him understand we 
weren’t robbers, so we came away again — and 
we’re very sorry.” 

Mrs. Cullen turned furiously upon them, and 
her language was so abusive, that Miss Ber- 
tram sent the boys away, and brought the 
poor woman to reason by quiet, persuasive 
words. 

“ I will enquire into the matter. I cannot 
quite understand their motive ; boys are 
thoughtless, and perhaps their intentions were 
good. I know they will be extremely sorry 
at the result of their visit. If you come with 
me to the housekeeper she will give you some 
good, strong soup for your husband. I will 
come and see him myself the first thing to- 
morrow morning.” 

It was not till after she had dined with 
her mother, that Miss Bertram sent for her 
little nephews again, and then she gave them 
a severer scolding than they had received from 
her for a long time. They crept up to bed 
that night feeling very woe-begone. 

“ I’m sure we’d better give up these oppor- 
tunities,” said Dudley, disconsolately, as they 


An Awkward Visit 


49 


paused at an old staircase window on their 
way to their rooms ; “ you see this is the third 
one, and they all turn out badly. There was 
that tramp who must have got drunk with 
.your sixpence, and then there was saving me, 
and that made you so awfully ill, and now 
here’s this old fellow that perhaps we shall 
make die. It all goes wrong, somehow.” 

Roy looked out of the window with knitted 
brow. 

“ I was thinking of that King — Bruce — who 
saw the spider try three times and then 
succeed. We must try again, that’s all! I 
shan’t give up yet. It is really a big oppor- 
tunity I’m looking for ! ” 

And Boy laid his head down on the pillow 
that night, steadfastly purposing to continue 
his role of benefiting the human race. 


V 


A LOST DONKEY 

Fortunately for the boys, John Cullen 
got over his fright and took a turn for the 
better, but Miss Bertram began to exercise 
more control over their many spare hours. 
She took them out driving with her in the after- 
noon, or expeditions by foot; sometimes to 
some farmhouse to tea, sometimes to some 
neighboring squire who had young ones to 
entertain them. And Dudley in his happy, 
careless way soon put all thoughts of improved 
opportunities out of his head. He was ready 
enough to put into action any proposal of 
Roy’s, but left alone he was perfectly content 
to enjoy himself in his own easy fashion ; and 
Roy seemed to be willing to let the matter 
rest, as he never now alluded to it. 

But one morning two or three weeks later, 
as the boys were returning from the Rectory 
with their satchels in their hands, they met an 
old man they knew in deep distress. 

“ What’s the matter, Roger ? ” asked Roy ; 
“why are you muttering away and shaking 
your head so ? ” 

“A y, young master, I be in a sorrowful 
50 


A Lost Donkey 


51 


plight. My donkey has strayed away and I 
cannot find she nowheres. I’ve been up over the 
hills, and not a sign of she ! And it’s to-mor- 
row that’s market day, and how I’m to get my 
veggetubbles to town is more’n I can tell ’ee ! ” 

“ She can’t be lost ; when did you have her 
last ? ” 

“ ’Twas yest’day mornin’. Ay, she be just 
a kickin’ up her heels miles away and a 
laughin’ at her poor old master. She be a 
terrible beast for strayin’, and I just let her 
out on the green for a bit thinkin’ to give her 
a pleasure, and that’s how she treats me, the 
ungrateful creature! I heerd she were seen 
on the hills, but I’m a weary of trampin’ up 
and down ’em.” 

“ We’ll go out on the hills and look for her 
this afternoon,” said Roy, eagerly. 

“ If Aunt Judy will let us,” added Dudley. 

But Miss Bertram having gone out to lunch 
with some friends could not be asked, so the 
two boys set out after their early dinner with 
light hearts. 

“ It’s doing old Roger good, and ourselves 
too,” said Roy ; “ I’m longing to have a good 
outing, and we needn’t be back very early, for 
granny isn’t well enough to see us to-day, 
nurse said.” 

It was a delicious afternoon for a ramble ; a 
soft breeze was blowing, and the sun was not 


5 2 


His Big Opportunity 


unpleasantly strong. The boys did a good 
deal of looking for the missing donkey, but 
also managed to combine with that a few 
other things, such as bird-nesting, picking wild 
strawberries, and enjoying themselves as only 
boys can, when roaming about in the open air. 
At last rather late in the afternoon they spied 
in the distance a donkey, and delighted to 
think their quest was at an end, they hastened 
up to it. 

Dudley had brought some carrots in his 
pocket, but the donkey was utterly indifferent 
to such a dainty; she waited till the boys 
were nearly up to her, and then with a kick 
up of her heels away she galloped, evidently 
enjoying the chase. 

“Won’t I give her a licking when I catch 
her,” shouted Dudley, wrathfully, as after a 
long and tiring race, they stopped a minute to 
rest; “let us leave her and go home, Roy. 
I’m sure it’s tea time, for I feel dreadfully 
hungry, and we’re miles and miles away. 
I’ve never been so far before.” 

“ Oh, we mustn’t give up,” Roy replied, with 
his usual determination ; “ we won’t be beaten 
by an old donkey, and when we do catch her, 
we will both get on her back and ride her 
home. Come on, let us have another try ! ” 

% “We haven’t got a halter, that’s the worst 
of it.” 



-!»r— » 



“ ‘ Now then, you rascals, what are you doing to my donkey ? ’ ” 

[Page 53 ) 






V 


53 


A Lost Donkey 

But Dudley plucked up courage, and in an- 
other half hour they were successful; Boy 
seated on the donkey’s back, and Dudley hold- 
ing firmly to her tail. 

“Now then — away with you — hip — hip — 
hurray ! ” 

Away they tore, both donkey and boys in 
best of spirits now : but before long they were 
brought to a standstill. A man brandishing a 
huge stick sprang out in front of them. 

“ Now then, you rascals, what are you doing 
to my donkey ? Get off it this instant ! ” 

“ It isn’t your donkey, it’s old Roger’s, and 
we’re taking it home to him. Don’t you cheek 
us ! You’re a rascal yourself ! ” 

Dudley spoke angrily, but as he noticed the 
donkey stop instantly, and begin to sidle up 
toward the man an awful fear smote him, 
and Roy added quietly, 

“ You see you may be a thief or any one, for 
all we know, and it isn’t likely we’re going to 
let you have the chance of stealing old Roger’s 
donkey. You go away and leave us alone. 
We’re going home now — Gee-up. Come on, 
Dudley.” 

Not an inch would the donkey stir ; and the 
man with a laugh, slipped a halter out of his 
pocket and in another minute Roy was rolling 
on the grass, and the donkey was being led off 
in the opposite direction. 


54 


His Big Opportunity 


“ You may think yourselves lucky to escape 
the thrashing ye desarves ! ” shouted out the 
man ; “ ye’ve given me a nice chase after my 
beast for the last hour, and ye needn’t add a 
pack of lies to your wicked pranks ! ” 

The boys sat down on the grass to consider 
their position. 

“Well, I call it beastly rot,” grumbled 
Dudley, thoroughly cross ; “ if that's his donkey 
I don’t believe old Roger’s is on the hills at 
all. It must have been this one that some- 
body saw, and now I come to think of it 
Roger’s has a black stripe down her back, and 
this one hadn’t ! ” 

“ I’m so awfully tired,” said Roy, discon- 
solately ; “ we’ve done no good as usual. I 
don’t believe we ever shall do any one any 
good ! ” 

When Roy’s spirits sank it was a bad case, 
and for some minutes there was silence 
between them. Then feeling they must make 
the best of it they scrambled to their feet and 
plodded slowly on in the direction of home. 
A heavy mist was falling by this time, and 
dusk was setting in. Roy began to cough, 
and at last in despair Dudley cried out, “ I do 
believe we’re lost ; I don’t know where the 
path is, and I’m sure this isn’t the way we 
came ! ” 

“Well,” said Roy, gasping as he spoke ; “ I’m 


55 


A Lost Donkey 

afraid this old mist is getting into my chest, 
and I can’t go very fast when my breath gets 
short. What shall we do ? Can you shout — 
p’raps that man with the donkey might hear 
us.” 

Dudley shouted and shouted till he was 
hoarse, and then the little fellows trudged 
wearily on. 

“ You see,” said Roy, bravely ; “ we must get 
somewhere if we go straight on.” 

“ I believe,” said Dudley, in doleful tones ; 
“ that you get right round the world and come 
back to where you started, if you only walk 
straight enough ! ” 

This depressing view did not comfort his 
cousin. 

“ I’ve always thought it would be very ex- 
citing to be lost,” Roy said with a sigh ; “ but 
it doesn’t seem very nice, does it ? And it is 
so cold. I wonder if we shall meet with any 
adventures, lost people generally do.” 

“ If we could come into a gipsies’ camp with 
a huge fire and a pot of stewed hares, it would 
be stunning ! Or if we could find old Princi- 
ple’s cave, that would be better still ! ” 

They were stumbling on, Roy gasping and 
panting for breath, and Dudley every minute 
or two giving a shout, when suddenly almost 
as if he had risen from the ground, a lad ap- 
peared in front of them. 


56 His Big Opportunity 

“We’re lost,” shouted Dudley who are 
you ? Can you tell us where Crockton village 
is?” 

“Ay, can’t I ! You’re only about four mile 
off!” 

“ Is it straight on ? ” questioned Roy, wist- 
fully. 

“No, you’re goin’ away from it.” 

The lad stood looking down at the two small 
boys and there was some pity in his tone. 

“ The little ’un is dead beat. Here — let me 
hoist you on my back, I’d as lief go to Crock- 
ton as anywhere else to-night, and I know 
every inch of these hills, I’ve been looking 
after cattle here since I were a babby ! There 
now, ain’t that better ? ” 

Roy was too tired out to resist, though he 
made a faint protest, and Dudley seeing him 
comfortably settled on the broad shoulders of 
the lad, trotted along contentedly by his side. 

“ How did you find us ? Did you hear us 
shouting ? ” 

“ I was trapping some moles close to yer, as 
ye came on.” 

“Where do you live? And what’s your 
name ? ” 

“I’m called Rob. I don’ t live nowheres 
now. Got chucked out last night ! ” 

And Rob gave a short laugh as he spoke. 

“ Where from ? ” 


57 


A Lost Donkey 

“Well, you see there’s a lot of us, and the 
old woman — she’s my stepmother — she told me 
she wouldn’t keep me no longer. My father — 
he died last year, and work is hard to get. 
I’ll tramp into some town and try my luck 
there.” 

“ Then where were you going to sleep to- 
night ? ” 

“ Sleep ? Oh, bless yer — there’s plenty o’ 
room and accommodation in the open. And I 
haven’t been about these parts for so long 
without knowing many a snug corner. I 
could show yer plenty a one. My pet one has 
been found out by some old chap lately. He 
goes into it and digs up quantities o’ stones and 
then sits and hugs them, all as if they was 
gold ! I laugh to see him sometimes ! ” 

“ Why that must be old Principle, and that’s 
the cave he thinks so much of ! He looks for 
bones.” * 

Rob gave another of his hearty laughs. 

“Well, if he has a taste that way, why don’t 
he go to a churchyard, he’ll dig to more 
success there.” 

“Ho, it’s only animals’ bones he likes, very, 
very old ones.” 

They tramped on, and then Hoy asked if he 
could be put down, and Dudley given a lift in- 
stead. Rob good-naturedly assented, but some 
minutes were spent in altercation between the 


58 


His Big Opportunity 


two boys before Dudley would consent to this 
arrangement. 

“ You’re as tired as I am,” persisted Roy. 

“ Oh, no, I’m not — at least it’s only my legs. 
You see I haven’t a chest like you. I’ll man- 
age, it’s always you that gets home ill, I never 
do.” 

“ I can’t help it,” said Roy, in a shaky voice ; 
“ I know I shall never be good for anything, 
I don’t think I’m much better than a girl, I 
suppose I ought to have been made one.” 

Roy was always in the depths of misery 
when he came to this climax, and Dudley 
hastened to reassure him. 

“Rot! You’re as good a walker as I any 
day. Yes, I’ll have a ride on your back, Rob, 
if you like. I’m nearly done for, and Roy 
looks quite fresh again.” 

There was great commotion when the trio 
reached the Manor at last. Miss Bertram came 
out into the hall to greet them with an anx- 
ious face. 

“ Oh, you scamps ! Y ou’ll turn my hair grey 
before long. Where have you been? Half 
the village has turned out to look for you ! 
What mischief have you been up to ? ” 

When the explanation was given Miss Ber- 
tram gave a little groan. 

“ If we are going to have these kind of ex- 
peditions, I really must insist upon your leav- 


59 


A Lost Donkey 

mg off trying to do other people good. Old 
Roger told me he found his donkey quite early 
in the afternoon. Now come off to bed both 
of you. I believe nurse is already getting her 
poultice ready in anticipation of a bad night, 
Jonathan ! ” 

“ What is Rob going to do ? ” Roy asked, 
shortly after, when he was comfortably tucked 
up in bed, and was enjoying a hot basin of 
bread and milk. Miss Bertram had just come 
in to see how he was. 

“Is that the lad that brought you back? 
He is having a good supper in the kitchen, and 
then will go home, I suppose.” 

“ But he hasn’t any home,” said Roy, put- 
ting down his spoon and looking at his aunt 
with an anxious face ; “ he can’t get work, so 
his mother turned him out of doors, and I want 
him to come and live with us, and when I 
grow up he shall be my servant ! ” 

Miss Bertram laughed. 

“ My dear boy, not quite so fast. I shall 
not turn him out to-night, if he has no home 
to go to ; but we cannot keep a lot of idle 
boys about the establishment.” 

Roy’s brown eyes filled with tears. It was 
so rarely that he showed his feelings that his 
aunt began to wonder whether he was not too 
weak and exhausted from his walk to be 
talked to. 


60 His Big Opportunity 

“ Don’t worry yonr little head over him,” 
she said, kindly ; “ go to sleep, and I’ll let you 
see him to-morrow morning.” 

. “ Have you ever been lost, Aunt Judy ? ” 

Roy was struggling for self-command, and 
his voice was very quiet. 

“ Ho, I’m thankful to say I never have.” 

“ I prayed to God,” he went on solemnly ; 
“ that He would send some one to show us the 
way home, and Rob was the answer. And 
when he took me up on his shoulders and I 
knew he was taking me home, I thought of 
that picture over there ! ” 

Roy pointed to a print of the Good Shepherd 
with the lost sheep across his shoulders, and 
Miss Bertram’s face softened as she stooped 
and kissed her little nephew. 

“ Good-night dear. We will see what can 
be done.” 

She left the room and when nurse came 
bustling up to see if the bread and milk had 
disappeared she found her little charge gazing 
dreamily in front of him. 

“ Come, dearie, eat your supper. Don’t you 
feel easier ? ” 

“ I was thinking,” Roy said, slowly bringing 
back his gaze to the basin before him ; “ that 
if you’re very strong you miss a lot of com- 
fort ; and however big and strong I grow up 


A Lost Donkey 


61 


to be, I liope I shan’t be too big and strong to 
be carried by Him ! ” 

He pointed to the picture again, and good 
old nurse responded, 

“ If you outgrow the Lord, you’ll outgrow 
heaven l ” 


YI 


ROB 

Roy was not allowed to go to the Rectory 
the next morning as it was rather damp, and 
nurse was carefully trying to ward off a 
bronchial attack, but he was permitted to see 
Rob, and the latter came in looking rather 
sheepish and as if he did not know what to do 
with his hands and his feet. 

“ What are you going to do, Rob ? ” asked 
Roy, eagerly, after their first greetings had 
been exchanged ; “ you aren’t going home 
again ? ” 

“ I’d sooner be shot,” was the short reply. 

“I’ve been talking to Aunt Judy about you 
again this morning, and she says if you would 
like to help our old gardener in the garden 
and could get a character from some one, she’d 
try you. I don’t quite know what she means 
about the character. I thought that belonged 
to you and not to any one else. She says she 
doesn’t know what you’re like, but I told her 
I’d find out. I say, take a chair, won’t you. 
Now then, you don’t mind my asking you a 
few questions, do you ? Are you a thief ? ” 

Rob took the chair that was offered him, 
62 


Rob 63 

squared his shoulders, and looked up with a 
pleasant smile at this blunt question. 

“ No, I ain’t that.” 

“ Have you ever killed anybody ? ” 

“No” 

“ Are you a drunkard ? ” 

“ I hate the stuff 1 ” 

“ Are you a fighter ? ” 

“Well, no, not a reg’lar one. I can’t say 
I’ve never knocked a feller down, or squared 
up with him a bit, but I don’t fight till I’m 
driven to it.” 

“ Are you a liar ? ” 

“ No.” 

Roy drew a sigh of relief, then continued : 
“Well, if you aren’t any of those, I’m sure 
Aunt Judy will have you, I told her I knew 
you weren’t wicked.” 

“ But I ain’t no scholar,” said Rob, doubt- 
fully; “I can’t write nor read, and that’s 
against a feller ! ” 

“ Oh, well, you won’t have to read and write 
much in the garden. Old Hal can’t read 
either, and he makes a cross for his name 
when he has to write it. But I suppose you 
can learn, can’t you ? ” 

Rob nodded. 

“You see I played truant mostly when I 
was sent to school, and then I began to mind 
the cattle soon after I were eight year old, but 


64 His Big Opportunity 

if any body would start me, I believe I could 
pick it up.” 

“ I’ll teach you myself when I’ve nothing 
else to do,” said Roy, grandly ; “ for I want 
you to be clever. I want you to come with 
me, when I’m grown up, to my big house. 
You shall be my head servant, and live with 
me always. Would you like that ? ” 

Rob grinned, and seemed to think it a great 
joke. 

Roy continued: “Of course I shall want 
you more when Dudley goes away. He has 
got a stepfather, so when he grows up he will 
go out to India, I expect, to live with him, but 
we don’t talk of it, and we pretend we’re 
never going to leave each other. Did you find 
Dudley very much heavier to carry than 
me ? ” 

“Well, yes, he were a bit heavier.” 

“ I’m afraid I shall never catch him up, he 
is nearly a head taller, and he seems to grow 
quicker every month. I grow so slowly. I 
think it is because I lie in bed so much more 
than he does, I’m always having to go to bed 
in the daytime when I’m ill, and that must 
keep you from growing, don’t you think so ? ” 

The conversation was here interrupted by 
Miss Bertram’s entrance. She had a long talk 
with Rob, and in the end took him for a 
month on trial, as she had known his father. 


Rob 


6 S 

The boys were delighted, but Roy still per- 
sisted in regarding him as his special protege, 
and more than once this had occasioned a 
heated argument between the two cousins. 

“ He doesn’t belong to you. You order him 
about as if he were your servant,” said Dudley, 
impatiently, one afternoon after Roy had sent 
Rob on more than one errand to the house for 
him. 

“Well, so he will be one day,” returned Roy, 
flushing up. 

They were seated again in their favorite 
corner on the wall, some ripe plums having 
just been handed up to them by the obliging 
Rob, and Dudley having put an extra big one 
in his mouth was speechless for a moment. 

“I suppose you’llget so fond of Rob, that 
you won’t want me any longer,” he said, after 
some consideration. 

“ Rob is my servant, but you’re a friend and 
relation,” asserted Roy. 

“ He is an opportunity, and a pretty big 
one, isn’t he ? ” 

“ Why, yes ; I never thought of that ! How 
splendid ! ” 

Roy’s large eyes were shining, and he gazed 
with tender pride at Rob who was now sweep- 
ing the lawn. 

“We have done him good already, haven’t 
we ? ” pursued Dudley, reflectively ; “ only he 


66 His Big Opportunity 

started by doing us good. I tell you what we 
might do for him. Teach him to read.” 

Roy looked very doubtful. 

“ It is so difficult, and he seems so stupid. I 
did try the other day, for he asked me to ; but 
I never thought any body could be so stupid ! 
I told him we would have to give it up, for it 
made me lose my temper so. I thought per- 
haps he could go to old Principle. You see 
he is too big for school, but old Principle is 
always saying he likes to teach people things.” 

“ Well, that is awfully funny,” said Dudley, 
pointing down to the pine woods opposite 
them. “ Talk of him and there he is ! Isn’t 
that him walking along over there ? Look — 
now he’s stooping down to look at something. 
I’m sure it’s old Principle ; we’ll call him ! ” 

Two shrill boyish voices rang out, “ Old 
Principle ! Hi ! We want you ! Old Princi- 
ple ! ” 

Soon after old Principle was standing be- 
neath the wall, having obeyed the summons. 

He stood looking up at them with his straw 
hat pushed to the back of his head, and his 
keen, piercing eyes twinkling kindly under his 
thick, shaggy eyebrows. 

“ W ell, laddies, you’re above me now. ’Tisn’t 
often you can look down at old Principle from 
such a superior height.” 

“ We want to ask you if we may send Rob 


Rob 67 

clown to yon for you to teach him to read,” 
said Roy, eagerly. 

“ And why have not two idle boys more 
time than a busy shopkeeper to do such a 
thing ? ” demanded the old man. 

“Oh, well, you see,” explained Roy, con- 
fusedly; “grown-up people know how to 
teach, and boys don’t. Besides, we aren’t idle, 
we work hard at lessons all the morning, and 
we have half an hour’s prep after tea.” 

Old Principle shook his head. 

“ And you’re the lad for making people bet- 
ter, and doing good to all. ’Tis a bad princi- 
ple, my boy, to wait for great opportunities, 
and let the small ones go ! ” 

“ Do you think we ought to teach him ? ” 
questioned Dudley. 

“ If he wants to learn, and you have the 
time, you will be letting the opportunity slip, 
that’s all. And moreover old Principle isn’t 
going to be the one to help you do it.” 

The old man turned his back upon them and 
walked into the pine wood again, leaving the 
two boys gazing after him with perturbed faces. 

“ He’s rather cross this afternoon,” observed 
Dudley. 

“ I s’pose he thinks it’s for our good. Shall 
we try again ? Could you teach him one day, 
and me the next ? That wouldn’t be quite so 
tiring.” 


68 


His Big Opportunity 


Rob was called upon and consulted, and it 
was finally arranged that every afternoon 
from two to three he should have a reading 
lesson on the top of the garden wall. 

“We shan’t feel sleepy here, and it’s the 
time everybody else is taking a nap,” said Roy, 
trying to take a cheerful view of it. “I’m 
going to try and be very patient and not be 
cross once, for you’re our opportunity, or one 
of them, isn’t he, Dudley ? ” 

Dudley nodded. “The biggest we’ve had 
yet,” he said. 

Rob grinned and went away delighted. He 
was a steady, honest lad, devoted to both 
boys; but especially to Roy, who, without 
Dudley’s constant remonstrance, would have 
tyrannized over him to his heart’s content. 
Miss Bertram left them alone ; she exercised a 
certain supervision over Rob’s work, but never 
objected to his joining her little nephews’ 
amusements. 

“ They will not learn any harm from him,” 
she told her mother ; “ and he may teach them 
many things that are good.” 

So it came to pass that reading lessons took 
place regularly every day on the top of the 
wall, and Rob’s eagerness to master all hard 
words, and his humble diffidence, when his 
little teachers waxed wrath with him, was 
touching to witness. Sometimes conversation 


Rob 


69 

would bear a large part in the lessons, espe- 
cially when Roy was the teacher. And Dud- 
ley would always insist on having a break for 
refreshments. 

“ You will be able to write letters for me, 
Rob, when I grow up,” said Roy, one after- 
noon, pausing in the lesson. “I don’t like 
writing letters, and I’m thinking of travelling 
round the world and discovering countries, so 
I shall have to write home sometimes. You 
will come with me, won’t you ? ” 

“ For certain I will,” was the emphatic re- 

ply- 

“ I’ve been thinking,” pursued Roy, thought- 
fully, as he let his gaze wander from the book 
between them to the top of the dark pines 
swaying gently in the summer breeze ; “ that 
I may be quite strong enough when I grow up 
to be a discoverer. You see I can’t be a 
soldier or sailor, but I haven’t anything the 
matter with me but a weak chest, and doctors 
say sea voyages and travelling do weak chests 
good sometimes. Do you think I’m a very 
poor body to look at, Rob? That’s what 
some of the villagers say I am, but my head 
and legs and arms are all right. I’m not a 
cripple or a hunchback, or blind, or deaf, or 
dumb, so- I must be very glad of that. What 
do you think ? ” 

“ You’re just as straight and plucky as Mas- 


7 ° 


His Big Opportunity 


ter Dudley, and you’ll grow up a big, strong 
man, I dare say,” said Rob, sympathetically. 

“ Old Principle says you may be a maker, a 
mender, or a breaker in your life. I want to 
be a maker. And I should like to find a coun- 
try and make it into a nice big town. I want 
to do something big. I ask God every day 
to let me find something to do.” 

“ Do you believe in — in God ? ” asked Rob, 
rather sheepishly. 

“ Of course I do ; what do you mean ? Don’t 
you ? ” 

“ I don’t know. I don’t know much about 
Him, only you often talk as if you’re — well 
quite friends with Him, and I’ve wondered at 
it.” 

Roy brought down his gaze from the hill- 
tops to his companion’s face with grave inter- 
est. 

“ I’ve known God since I was a baby,” he 
said. “ I don’t remember when I didn’t know 
Him. Nurse used to talk to me when I was 
Very small, and when my father was dying he 
called me to him, and said, — ‘ Fitz Roy ! Serve 
God first, then your Queen, and then your fel- 
low men ! ’ I’ve always remembered it, only 
you know we don’t talk about these things, 
and I’ve only told Dudley. I’m trying to 
serve God — you don’t want to be very strong 
to do that ; but I’m longing to serve the 


Rob 


7 1 


Queen, and when Mr. Selby talked to us of 
opportunities for doing good to all men I’ve 
been longing to find them ever since. Don’t 
you know much about God, Rob ? ” 

Rob shook his head. “ I used to larn He 
made the world and me, and I know He’ll 
punish the wicked, but I’ve never tried to 
serve Him, and — and I don’t think as how I 
care about it.” 

“ P’raps you don’t know about Jesus Christ ? ” 
asked Roy, solemnly. 

“Well, yes, I used to larn about Him when 
I was a kid at the Sunday-school. I know He 
came into the world to save people, but I 
never rightly understood why, nor what differ- 
ence it makes.” 

“ I’ll be able to tell you that. If He hadn’t 
died, I suppose I shouldn’t have cared about 
serving God because it would have been no 
use — nothing would have been any use, for we 
should all have had to go to hell when we 
died, to punish us for our sins. We could 
never have got to heaven at all.” 

“If we had been very good I reckon we 
could,” put in Rob, knitting his brows with 
this aspect of the subject. 

“But you see the Bible says we can’t be 
good, not one of us — the devil won’t let us.” 

“ But there are good people in the world.” 

“You interrupt so,” said Roy, a little im- 


7 2 


His Big Opportunity 


patiently. “ I was going to tell you. Jesus 
died to let God be able to forgive us and take 
us to heaven. It’s rather difficult to explain, 
but God punished Him instead of us, do you 
see ? So now we can all go to heaven, and the 
reason we try to be good is to please Jesus be- 
cause He has loved us, and the reason we are 
able to be good is because Jesus helps us to be, 
and He can fight the devil better than we can. 
There, I think I’ve told you it right. How 
shall we go on with the reading ? ” 

Rob said no more till after the lesson was 
over, then he said slowly, “ It’s rather strange, 
that what you were a tellin’ me, but I don’t 
see it quite. P’raps another day you’ll tell me 
again.” 

“ If you make haste and read, I’ll give you 
a Bible, and then you’ll be able to read about 
it yourself. Of course you ought to be serv- 
ing God just as much as anybody else, and 
you’d better begin at once ! ” 

Saying which Roy scrambled down from his 
high perch and raced across the garden to the 
stables where he had settled to meet Dudley ; 
whilst Rob descended more slowly, muttering 
to himself, “ ’Tis a good thing not to be afraid 
of God like Master Roy, but I doubt if I 
should ever get to serve Him ! ” 


YII 


A WALNUT STOKY 

“ I say, Dudley, do come out for a ride ! 
Aunt Judy is with granny, and she says the 
house must be quiet, and I hate being in a 
quiet house. Come on ! What are you do- 
ing ? ” 

Roy finished his sentence by springing on 
Dudley’s back, and as he was in a crouching 
attitude in a corner of the old nursery, he 
brought him flat to the ground by his unex- 
pected attack. For a minute or two both 
boys rolled on the ground in each other’s 
clutches, and feet and hands were having a 
busy time of it. Then Dudley sprang to his 
feet. 

“ I like you coming in to tell me to be quiet, 
and then beginning a fight at once ! Do shut 
up ! You’ve quite spoilt my last letter ! ” 

“Well, what are you doing?” 

“ I’m carving my name in th§ corner here, 
just below my father’s.” 

Roy looked with curiosity at Dudley’s 
handiwork. 

“ Yes, your M is very crooked ; but I wouldn’t 
choose to write my name on the wainscoting. 

73 


74 


His Big Opportunity 


It’s too low down. I like to be at the top of 
everything. Now if you carved it on the 
ceiling that would be something like ! ” 

“You’re always wanting to do impossibili- 
ties ! ” 

“ I should like to have a try at them,” re- 
joined Roy, quickly. “ I hate everything that 
is easy. Now come on, do ! and we’ll have a 
good gallop over the down ! ” 

Half an hour later and the boys were tear- 
ing through the village on their ponies, and 
were soon out on an open expanse of heather 
and grass. 

Roy was in the midst of an eloquent ha- 
rangue on all he was going to do when he was 
grown up, when Dudley suddenly came to a 
standstill. 

“ Something is the matter with Hazel. I 
believe she’s going lame. Oh, I see, one of 
her shoes is loose ! Now what are we to do ! ” 

He sprang off his pony as he spoke, and 
looked perplexed at this calamity. 

“ Lead her on gently,” was Roy’s ready ad- 
vice. “We ^ren’t far off from C , and I 

know there’s a blacksmith there.” 

Dudley grumbled a little at having his ride 
spoiled in this fashion ; but it was not long be- 
fore they reached the neighboring village, and 
the smith’s forge was soon found. 

Then, whilst Hazel was being attended to, 


75 


A Walnut Story 

Roy suggested that they should go and see an 
old lady, a great friend of their aunt’s, who 
lived just outside the village. 

“ She might ask us to tea,” suggested Roy, 
“ and she has awfully nice cake always going. 
I’ll leave my pony here, and we’ll call again 
for them on our way back.” 

“ I don’t like paying visits,” objected Dud- 
ley, a little crossly. 

“But Mrs. Ford isn’t half bad to talk to, 
she’s full of stories.” 

And by dint of these two baits, “ cake ” and 
“ stories,” Dudley’s shyness was overcome, and 
the two boys were soon walking up a sunny 
little garden and knocking at the rose-covered 
door of “ Clematis Cottage.” 

It was a tiny house, but spotlessly clean and 
tidy, and the long, low, dainty drawing-room 
into which they were shown had a sense of 
rest and repose which insensibly affected even 
the boys’ restless spirits. 

“ A nice room to be ill in,” was Roy’s com- 
ment ; “ there would be such a lot of jolly pic- 
tures and things to look at on the walls when 
you were in bed.” 

“ I should like to sit here on Sunday,” said 
Dudley. “ I am sure I could be still for quite 
half an hour ! ” 

The door opened and a little old lady in 
widow’s cap and gown came forward. She 


7 6 


His Big Opportunity 


was a fragile, delicate-looking little woman, 
with a very bright face and smile, and she 
beamed upon the boys delightedly. 

“ My dear boys, this is quite a treat ! I 
don’t often get a visit from young gentle- 
men. How is your grandmother ? Have you 
brought me any message from your aunt ? ” 

“ Granny is not very well to-day,” replied 
Roy, frankly, “ and Aunt Judy didn’t know 
we were coming here. We have been riding, 
and Dudley’s pony has had to be shod, so 
we’ve left him at the blacksmith’s and come 
on here. You see we thought it would pass 
the time.” 

“ And so it will, and you shall have a nice 
cup of tea before you go back. Why, what 
big boys you are growing ! Which is the eld- 
er? I always forget.” 

“I am,” said Roy, a little shamefacedly; 
“ but of course most people think Dudley is, 
because he is the biggest.” 

“ It’s only two months and five days, though, 
between us,” put in Dudley, eagerly, knowing 
what a sore point his size was to Roy ; “ and 
you see, Mrs. Ford, Roy’s brain is much bigger 
than mine — Mr. Selby says it is, so that makes 
us quits ! ” 

“And I wonder which has the biggest 
soul ? ” said Mrs. Ford, quaintly. 

The boys stared at her. 


A Walnut Story 


77 


“ Shall I tell you a little story while we are 
waiting for tea ? ” she asked, sitting down in 
her easy chair by the open window, and look- 
ing first at the boys with loving interest, and 
then away to the sweet country outside her 
garden. 

Roy gave Dudley a delighted nudge with 
his elbow. 

“Yes, please; we love a good rattling story; 
and make plenty of adventures in it, won’t 
you ? ” 

But Mrs. Ford shook her head with a little 
smile. 

“ I can’t tell you of fights with red Indians, 
and shipwrecks, and lion hunts, and all such 
things as that ; but you must take my story as 
it is, and think over it in your quiet moments. 

“ There was once an old garden. Flowers 
and fruit of every description grew in it, and 
when no human creature was about the air 
was full of flower laughter and fruit conversa- 
tion. One day in autumn some saucy spar- 
rows were teasing a young walnut-tree that 
stood between an apple and a pear-tree, oppo- 
site a wall which was covered with beautiful 
golden plums. 

“ ‘ What are you here for ? ’ they said, peck- 
ing at the round green balls that hung on the 
tree, and then wiping their beaks in disgust 
on the grass underneath. ‘ Ugh ! you’re sour 


His Big Opportunity 


ys 

and bitter and nasty enough to poisoh a per- 
son! You’re a disgrace to your master. The 
red and yellow apples next door to you are 
delicious this warm day, and the pears make 
one’s mouth fairly water, while as to the plums 
over there — well, every one is fighting for 
them, from the slugs and snails to every bird 
in the country, and the boys and girls and 
men and women — all of us have to be kept off 
by those horrible nets which the old gardener 
is continually spreading ! ’ 

“ ‘ I’m sure,’ whispered the young walnuts, 
humbly , 4 we don’t mean any harm. We don’t 
quite know why we are here ourselves. We 
have been hoping to see our green skins get 
red and yellow, and soft and ripe, like every- 
thing else round us, but they seem to get 
harder and uglier as time goes by. They feel 
very heavy, and our stems ache with holding 
them up ; do you think it just possible there 
may be something inside ? ’ 

“ ‘ Inside ! ’ laughed the sparrows ; ‘ who 
ever heard of the inside being better than the 
outside ? You’re stuffed with conceit, but 
nothing else.’ 

“ And away they flew, for they were not a 
year old themselves, and knew nothing about 
autumn nuts and berries. 

“The walnuts sighed and appealed to an 
old crow flying by. 


79 


A Walnut Story 

“ 4 Do you think we have been planted in 
this beautiful garden by mistake ? ’ they said. 
4 We have been waiting a long time to give 
pleasure and to do good to those around us. 
The bees give us a wide berth— they say they 
can get no honey from us ; we have no sweet 
scent to please the passer-by, no lovely blos- 
soms to delight their eyes. The apples have 
had blossoms and fruit, and all the other trees 
the same, yet here we hang and grow, and the 
days go by and we’re only laughed at for our 
ugliness and want of sweetness.’ 

44 4 Wait a little longer,’ said the old crow ; 
. 4 wait, and take pains to grow ! ’ 

44 And the walnuts waited, and the sun kissed 
their hard skins, and the rain refreshed them 
when dry and thirsty ; and still the sparrows 
mocked them, and the apple and pear-tree 
talked to each other over their heads, for they 
too looked upon them as a failure. One day 
the biggest walnut broke from his stem and 
dropped in the long grass. No one heeded his 
fall except his brothers; the gardener came 
by and gathered the apples and pears, but did 
not look at the walnut-tree; and when he 
kicked the fallen walnut with his feet he took 
no more notice of it than if it had been a peb- 
ble. 

44 4 Is that our fate ? ’ sighed the walnuts. 

4 Now we know we are no good. What is the 


8o 


His Big Opportunity 


use of trying to grow ? What is the good of 
living at all when we’re so ugly and useless, 
and the end of us is to lie and rot in the grass 
and be kicked by every one who passes ? ’ 

“ And they wept bitter tears of disappoint- 
ment and mortification ; and one by one they 
dropped from the tree and lay unheeded, un- 
cared for on the ground below. 

44 Then one morning came up the old crow. 

“ 4 Why did you tell us to wait ? ’ cried one 
walnut in petulant tones. 4 We’re rotting, 
dying here, and this is the end of us.’ 

44 4 Wait a little longer,’ said the crow again ; 
4 it is when we are very low that we are lifted 
very high. When we come to an end a new 
beginning is coming.’ 

44 The walnuts sighed as he flew away ; yet 
the biggest one turned with a spark of hope to 
his brothers. 

44 4 1 do believe we have been made for some- 
thing. My skin is rotting and dying, but in 
spite of it all I feel as if I have something in- 
side that is still alive. Let us wait and be 
patient a little longer.’ 

44 And then at last one day, when the apple 
and pear-tree were fruitless and leafless, when 
the flowers and butterflies and bees had all 
disappeared, down the garden came the mas- 
ter himself and the gardener. 

44 He stopped when he came to the walnut- 


A Walnut Story 81 

tree, and stooping down in the long grass he 
gently raised one of the fallen nuts. 

“ 4 You must gather these in,’ he said to his 
gardener ; 6 we have a good many for the first 
year.’ * 

“‘ Yes,’ said the gardener, ‘they are ready 
now. I’ve let them lie till you saw them.’ 

“ And the walnuts whispered to themselves 
in surprised delight that it was not neglect 
and indifference had left them there, but that 
the gardener had watched each one fall, and 
knew where to find them when their time 
came at last. 

“ And when their green husks were removed, 
and their brown' shells cracked at the master’s 
table, they discovered that the most valuable 
part of them was what could not be seen by 
outsiders, and could only be brought to light 
by the master’s hand.” 

“ That’s a kind of parable,” said Eoy when 
Mrs. Ford ceased speaking. 

“Yes,” she said, smiling; “most people are 
like the sparrows : they think it is only the 
outside you should go by. Now, when I see a 
person for the first time I alwa}^s wonder what 
their soul is like. If that is beautiful it doesn’t 
matter about their body. And a little body 
may contain a very big soul.” 

“ Can we make our souls big ? ” asked Eoy, 
with an anxious face. 


82 • His Big Opportunity 

“ They should he growing, my boy, day by 
day. Put them into the Gardener’s keeping 
and He will make them grow. It isn’t the 
handsome and the strong who do all the good 
in the world; very often it is just the other 
way.” 

“ Then there is hope I may do something,” 
said Hoy, brightening up ; “I like that story 
about the walnuts, don’t you, Dudley ? ” 

“Yes, I’ll think of it when I crack them 
next,” said Dudley. 

Tea was now brought in, and the boys did 
it full justice, and shortly after they were on 
their homeward way. 

“ She’s a jolly old thing,” remarked Dudley, 
presently, “and her cake was awfully good. 
I’m glad we went to see her.” 

Roy was unusually silent. Dudley contin- 
ued — 

“ I expect you’ve got the biggest soul of us 
too, Roy ; nurse is always saying your soul is 
too big for your body.” 

“I wish I had no body sometimes,” said 
Roy, with a sigh ; “ it gets so tired and stupid.” 

“ Well, we won’t talk about souls and bodies 
any more,” Dudley said, quickly, “ they aren’t 
interesting. I say, do you think we could 
teach Rob cricket ? ” 

Rob was a topic which always interested 
Roy. He brightened up at once. 


A Walnut Story 83 

“ We’ll teach him everything,” he said, 
eagerly. “ I want him to be able to read and 
write and play, and do everything that we do, 
and more besides, for I shall have him for my 
friend as well as a servant when I grow up.” 

“A funny kind of chap for a friend,” said 
Dudley, a little crossly ; “ he’s twice as old as 
you are, to begin with, and he’s an awfully 
stupid, thick-headed fellow.” 

“ Don’t you like Rob ? ” 

Roy’s tone was an astonished one. 

“ Oh, I like him well enough, but I’m get- 
ting rather sick of hearing you crack him up 
so.” 

Roy changed the subject. He wondered 
sometimes why Dudley seemed to lose his 
temper so over Rob ; it never entered his head 
that Dudley might regard him as a possible 
rival ; that Rob, the country lad, might spoil 
the covenant of friendship between them. 


VIII 

THE BERTRAMS’ LEAP 

It was Roy’s birthday, and he was standing 
at his bedroom window before breakfast look- 
ing out into the old garden below, his busy brain 
full of thought and conjecture. His birthday 
was a very important day to him, and for some 
years now there had been a settled programme 
for the day. His guardian, an old Indian 
officer living in the neighborhood, and for- 
merly a very old friend of his father’s, always 
came over to see him and stayed to lunch, the 
two boys joining their elders at that meal. 
Directly after, they would drive or ride over 
to Norrington Court which was Roy’s future 
home, and stay there for the rest of the day. 

The boy’s heart was full of the future as usual, 
and when Dudley burst into his room with a 
radiant face to offer his good wishes, he turned 
to meet him gravely. 

But Dudley was too occupied in tugging in 
a small basket to notice it. 

“ This is my present, old chap. Just open it 
and see if you don’t like it.” 

Roy’s little face became illumined with 
smiles a moment after, when he saw two 
84 


The Bertrams’ Leap 85 

beautiful little white mice amongst the straw 
looking up at him with calm curiosity out of 
their bright beady eyes. 

“ They’re tame,” said Dudley, delightedly ; 
“ old Principle has had them, taming them for 
over a month. Their names are Nibble and 
Dibble. Look ! This is Dibble with the little 
black spot on his nose. You never guessed, 
did you ? I’ve been down to see them lots of 
times and they’ll eat food out of my hand. 
You just see ! ” 

Boy was too excited over his mice to eat 
much breakfast, and when Bob came up to 
him immediately afterward with a new cricket 
ball, bought out of his small wages, he declared 
he was the “ luckiest fellow in the world.” 

Miss Bertram presented him with a hand- 
some writing case, and every one of the serv- 
ants had some trifle to offer him. At ten 
o’clock he went to his grandmother’s room. 

This was also part of the programme. 

Mrs. Bertram received him very impressively, 
as was her wont. 

“ Sit down, Fitz Boy ; you are getting a big 
boy ; have you been measured this morning ? ” 

“ Yes, granny, and I really have grown an 
inch and a half since last* year. That isn’t 
very bad, is it ? ” 

“Your father was very much taller at your 
age. I cannot understand it.” 


86 


His Big Opportunity 


Roy began to feel rather depressed. 

“ General Newton will be here soon, I sup- 
pose,” continued Mrs. Bertram, precisely, “ and 
I wish you to convey him a message from me. 
Give him my very kind regards, and ask him 
to excuse me from coming down to see him 
this morning. I have had a very bad night, 
and am not feeling fit for any extra fatigue. 
I hope he will find you improved in manners 
and appearance. I could wish you talked and 
laughed less and thought more. You must 
endeavor to realize your responsibilities when 
you visit Norrington Court this afternoon. It 
is a very large and important property for a 
little boy like you to be heir to, and I hope 
you will fill the position worthily when you 
come of age. Your uncle was the most re- 
spected and honored man in the county, and if 
your dear father had lived to come back from 
Canada, he would have walked in your uncle’s 
steps.” 

“And who will walk in mine when I’m 
dead, granny ? ” 

“ My dear, you must learn not to interrupt 
grown-up people when they are speaking.” 

“ I’m very sorry, but do tell me if I died 
before I grew up, would Dudley have my 
house ? ” 

“ Yes, by the terms of the will he would, as 
his father came next in age to yours.” 


The Bertrams’ Leap 


87 

“ That is what Aunt Judy means, when she 
calls me Jonathan and says when I brag, that 
I must remember my namesake never came to 
the throne at all. I like to think that Dudley 
may have it, he would make a grander master 
than me, wouldn’t he ? ” 

Mrs. Bertram gave a little sigh. Boy’s 
delicacy was a sore point with her, and 
she could never get reconciled to his small 
stature. 

“ Well,” said Boy, after a pause ; “ I’ll do my 
very best, granny, to grow up a big strong 
man. I take my tonics now whenever nurse 
gives them to me, and I never pour them out 
of the window as I used to do. And I’m 
hoping to do something great before I die, 
and I’m trying to grow up a good man. Do 
you think that will do ? ” he added, a little 
anxiously, as he fancied his grandmother’s 
gaze rested on him with some dissatisfaction. 

She did not reply, only drew out her purse 
from her pocket, and Boy knew this was a 
signal for his dismissal. 

“JSTow,” said Mrs. Bertram, “this is the 
sovereign that I usually give you. I hope you 
will spend it wisely. Tell me when it is gone 
what you have done with it. I hope you will 
spend a happy day. Give me a kiss and leave 
me. Oh, if only you were more like your hand- 
some father ! ” 


88 


His Big Opportunity 


Roy took his gift, thanked her for it, and 
giving his grandmother a kiss, left the room 
very quietly. 

Outside the door he paused on the door-mat, 
and drew his jacket across his eyes with a 
strangled sob. 

“ It’s a pity God won’t make me strong, but 
I don’t seem to be able to do it myself.” 

And then with a shout for Dudley, a minute 
after he was tearing round the house, showing 
his pet mice to all, and chattering away as if 
he had not a care upon him. 

General Newton arrived soon after .and took 
a more cheering view of his ward’s appearance 
than had his grandmother. 

“ You’ll grow into a splendid fellow yet,” 
he said, patting him on the shoulder, “ and 
you’ll out-top your cousin. Have you been in 
many scrapes lately ? ” 

“ They’re good boys on the whole,” replied 
Miss Bertram, smiling ; “ except when they try 
to be philanthropists, and then they come to 
grief.” 

“ Oh, that’s the last idea, is it ? When I was 
here before they were going to be travelling 
peddlers. Have you made a choice of any 
profession yet, either of you ? ” 

“Yes, I’m going to be a traveller and dis- 
coverer,” said Roy, with decision. 

“ Oh, indeed ! Then you’ve still the love for 


The Bertrams’ Leap 


89 

exploration. How is your friend old Prin- 
ciple? Is he still unearthing wonders and 
keeping them in his kettles ? ” 

“ He is busy in a cave now,” said Dudley, 
eagerly ; “ would you like to come and see it 
one day ? ” 

“Ho, thank you. And are you lads still 
devoted friends ? ” 

“David and Jonathan, still,” said Miss Ber- 
tram ; and the old general laughed heartily. 

Before he left, he also gave Boy a sovereign, 
which made the little fellow confide to Dudley, 
“ I’ve put granny’s in my right hand pocket, 
and the general’s in my left, they won’t mix 
together well, because hers is such a solemn 
one, and his is so jolly ! ” 

It was a happy little party that set off for 
Norrington Court. The boys were on their 
ponies, and Miss Bertram in her pony trap, 
with Bob sitting behind, proud in the con- 
sciousness of a new suit of clothes, and de- 
lighted at being included in the number. 

Up a long stately avenue of elms and 
beeches, with bracken and ferns covering 
mossy glades in the distance, and then Boy 
and Dudley flung themselves off their ponies 
before an old stone house with ivy-covered 
walls and turrets. Everything had been 
brightened up for their visit. The flowers on 
the terraces were one mass of sweet perfume 


9 ° 


His Big Opportunity 


and color, the drives weeded and rolled, and 
the velvet turf in only such a condition as 
centuries of care can make it. The old house- 
keeper opened the door in her very best black 
silk, and two or three more faithful retainers 
stood in the background. 

Roy spoke to them all with boyish frank- 
ness and grace, and then eagerly demanded if 
tea might be on the terrace. Miss Bertram 
agreed and while she went indoors for a chat 
with the housekeeper, the boys tore round the 
place dragging Rob after them. The stables 
of course were visited, and an old groom who 
had known the boys’ fathers when boys, wel- 
comed them with great warmth. 

“ Ye must grow quicker, Master Fitz Roy. 
We want to see you here among us. I’m 
looking to see all these stalls occupied by 
hunters and sich like again. ’Tis mournful 
work to live year in and year out with only 
two hosses for company ! ” 

“ Tell us about the old times, Ben, do ! ” 

Ben sat down and spread his hands out on 
his knees reflectively. 

“ All the young gentlemen were born 
riders,” he said, slowly ; “ I mind how Master 
Randolph would tear up the avenue after a 
long ride. ‘There, Ben’ he’d say to me, 
chucking me the rein, and jumpin’ off as light 
as a feather, ‘ we’ve worked our spirits h’off — 


The Bertrams’ Leap 91 

Ruby and me ! ’ When the old squire were 
alive, he’d have all three young gentlemen up, 
and then he’d mount them and bring them 
down to Ruddocks stream, and see them jump 
it. He used to say, i No grandson of mine is 
worth calling a Bertram if he can’t take that 
leap before he is twelve year old ! ’ They all 
did it before they was ten, and he used to 
stand chuckling and rubbing his hands as he 
saw them do it.” 

“ Is that the stream at the bottom of the 
back meadow ? ” asked Dudley, eagerly ; “ the 
one with the hedge in front ? ” 

“ Ay, to be sure ! ” 

“ But we have never jumped it,” exclaimed 
Roy. “ And I think we ought to for we’re 
his great-grandsons.” 

“We shan’t be twelve for a long time yet,” 
said Dudley, “ but we really ought to try.” 

“Well, we’ll do it this evening after tea; 
and you shall come and see us do it, Ben.” 

Ben grinned from ear to ear. 

“You’ll go over it like a bird, if so be as 
your pony is accustomed to sich things ! ” 

► “We haven’t taken very high jumps,” ad- 
mitted Dudley, candidly. 

“ Oh, we shall do it,” said Roy, with a little 
toss of his head ; we’ll make them go over ! ” 

And then they turned to other subjects. 

“ What do you think of my house, Rob ? ” 


9 2 


His Big Opportunity 


asked Roy, later on as he was escorting his 
humble friend through the empty rooms and 
corridors upstairs. 

. “ It’ll take a powerful number of people to 
fill it,” said Rob, with awe. 

“ I shall have a lot of friends to stay with 
me, of course, and then I shall marry ; men 
always do that, don’t they ? ” 

“ I b’lieve they mostly does,” was the grave 
reply. 

“ And won’t you like to come and live with 
me here ? ” 

“ That I should.” 

“Well,” said Dudley, from a few paces be- 
hind ; “ if you’re going to travel, you won’t 
use your house much, Roy. If Rob is going 
to be your follower, I’ll come and live here 
when you’re abroad, and when you come 
home, I’ll go away.” 

“ No you won’t, you know we shall want 
you too.” 

And seeing the frown on Dudley’s face, Roy 
turned back and linked his arm in his. “ Look 
here,” he added, “ Rob shall be your follower 
as well as mine, and we will all go out to look 
for a new country together, and when we’ve 
found it, we will come back and have a jolly 
time in this old house.” 

“ I shall have to work for my living,” Dud- 
ley replied, gruffly. 


The Bertrams’ Leap 


93 


“Yes. I was thinking,” and the earnest 
look came into Boy’s eyes as he spoke ; “I was 
thinking this morning, I mustn’t just live as I 
like to live when I grow up. There will be 
an awful lot to be done. Old Principle was 
telling me the other day that the reason some 
people are overworked is because other people 
don’t work enough, and an idle man puts his 
burden of work on other people’s backs.” 

“We don’t want old Principle’s sermons 
here,” exclaimed Dudley, having recovered his 
good humor. “ Aren’t you awfully hungry ? 
I’m sure tea must be ready.” 

They went to the terrace where a most 
elaborate repast was set out, which they thor- 
oughly enjoyed. After it was over all the 
servants came up to drink Boy’s health ; the 
old butler Pike made a little speech, and Boy 
responded ; his words lingering in the mem- 
ories of those who heard him for long after- 
ward. 

Miss Bertram, as she looked at his upright, 
slender little figure, and noted the intense 
emphasis with which he spoke, felt a pang .go 
through her, as she wondered if his frail young 
life would be cut short before he reached man- 
hood. 

“ I’m awfully much obliged to you all for 
your good wishes. I’m determined when I 
grow up and come to live with you that I’ll 


94 


H is Big Opportunity 


do all the good I can to everybody. I hope 
I’m getting stronger, and I think I may be 
able to do as much as other people. But what- 
ever I am, I promise you I’ll do my very best 
for the property ! ” 

Then three cheers were given for the little 
master; and after the ceremony was over, 
Miss Bertram told her little nephews to amuse 
themselves quietly for another half hour be- 
fore they returned home. 

Their plans were already arranged, and they 
went straight to the stables for their ponies to 
try the leap the old groom had mentioned to 
them. 

He had already saddled them, and a few 
minutes after, they came through the small 
paddock in front of the spot. 

It was rather an awkward hedge, though 
not a very high one with a broad stream of 
running water the other side. 

Old Ben began to get a little nervous as he 
saw the boys eyeing the leap rather doubtfully. 

“Has the hedge grown since our fathers 
were little boys ? ” asked Dudley. 

“ A wee bit, perhaps, though we do keep it 
cut pretty much to the same level. It’s a deal 
thicker than it used to be, but don’t you try it 
if you hain’t sure of your ponies. It ’ud be a 
awful thing if you hurt yoursels and couldn’t 
do it ! ” 




u < 


He’s dead, 


Ben ! 


lie’s dead ! ’ ’ 


[Page 95 ) 






95 


The Bertrams’ Leap 

“ If we try it at all, we shall do it,” said 
Boy, spiritedly, and then he and Dudley rode 
back to put their steeds to a gallop. 

Old Ben watched them breathlessly. Dud- 
ley seemed to be hesitating. 

“I say, old fellow, don’t let us do it to- 
night.” 

Boy’s look was one of astonishment mingled 
with a little contempt. 

“Not do it ! Are you afraid ? ” 

Dudley’s color rose. “ I’m not afraid of our 
courage,” he said, boldly, u but of our ponies : 
They have never been accustomed to it.” 

“Then they can learn to-night. Bow then, 
there’s plenty of room for us both abreast. 
One — two — three — off ! Hurrah for the Ber- 
trams ! ” 

The ponies were fresh, the hedge was 
cleared; but as old Ben was in the act of 
waving his cap aloft to give a cheer — there 
was a crash — a sharp cry — and a sickening 
thud the other side of the hedge. And when 
the old groom with beating heart and trem- 
bling limbs, reached the farther bank, Boy 
and his horse were prostrate on the ground. 
Dudley had cleared it safely, and now having 
flung himself from his horse was leaning over 
Boy in agony of terror. 

“ He’s dead, Ben — he’s dead — his pony rolled 
over him — oh, fetch a doctor, quick ! ” 


9 6 


His Big Opportunity 


Ben took the unconscious little figure in his 
arms, with a heavy groan ; and Dudley tore 
on to the house almost frantic with fright. 

Every one was in confusion at once, but it 
was Rob who tore off for the doctor, and 
brought him in an incredibly short time, con- 
sidering that he lived three miles away. 

To Dudley, listening outside the bedroom 
door, it seemed years before the doctor came 
out, and when he did, he was too overcome to 
speak to him. But seeing the white unnerved 
face of the boy, Doctor Grant put his hand 
kindly on his shoulder. 

“Cheer up, my boy, it might have been 
worse — he is only stunned, and leg broken. I 
hope he will pull round again.” 

And then Dudley burst into a passionate fit 
of tears, with relief at the doctor’s words. 


IX 


MAKING HIS WILL 

It was long before the cousins met ; Boy’s 
delicate constitution had received such a shock 
that his condition for some time was a cause 
of grave anxiety. His leg did not heal, and 
then the terrible word was whispered through 
the house “ amputation ” ! 

It was a lovely evening in September when 
after a long talk with the doctor in the library 
Miss Bertram came out, her usually deter- 
mined face quivering with emotion. 

“ I will tell him to-night, Doctor Grant, and 
we shall be ready for you to-morrow afternoon 
at three.” 

She went upstairs, and Dudley with scared 
eyes having heard her speech now crept out 
of the house after the doctor. 

“Look here, Doctor Grant,” he said, con- 
fronting him with an almost defiant air: 
“ you’re not going to make Boy a cripple ! ” 

“ I’m going to save his life, if I can,” said the 
doctor, half sadly, as he looked down upon the 
sturdy boy in front of him. 

“ He won’t live with only one leg, I know 
he won’t, it will be too much of a disgrace to 
97 


98 His Big Opportunity 

him ; he’ll die of grief, I know he will ! Oh, 
Doctor Grant, you might have pity on him, it 
isn’t fair ! ” 

“Would you rather see him die in lingering 
pain ? ” enquired the doctor, gravely. 

“ Oh, I think it so awful ! Why should he 
be the one to be smashed up. Look at me ! I 
know everybody thinks it a pity it wasn’t me. 
It would have made us so much more equal. 
Why should I be so strong, and he so weak ! 
I tell you what ! I’ve heard a story about 
joining on other men’s legs. Now tell me, 
could you do it ? Could you give him one of 
mine ? I’d let you cut it off this minute — to- 
night, if you only would. If it would make 
him walk straight ! ” 

Dudley seized hold of the doctor’s coat ex- 
citedly, and Doctor Grant saw his whole soul 
was in his words. 

“I’m afraid that would be an impossible 
feat, my boy. No — keep your own legs to 
wait upon him, and cheer him up all you can.” 

“ Cheer him up ! ” was the fierce retort ; 
“ what could cheer him ! I know he won’t be 
able to live a cripple. He always says he is 
straight and upright though his chest is weak, 
and now when he knows it’s no use trying to 
be strong any more, for he’ll never be able to 
— when he knows he won’t be able to play 
cricket, or football, or even climb the wall or 


Making His Will 


99 


run races — oh, it’s awful — it will break his 
heart, and I wish I was dead ! ” After which 
passionate speech Dudley dashed away, and 
the doctor continued his walk shaking his head 
and muttering, “It’s a bad lookout for the 
little fellow ! ” 

Dudley ran across the lawn in his misery, 
and then nearly tumbled over Rob who was 
lying on the grass, his face hidden in his arms. 
He looked up and his eyes were red and swol- 
len. 

“ Master Dudley, is it true, is he going to 
lose his legs ? ” 

Dudley stood looking at him for a minute 
before he spoke, and then he said, “ Yes, it’s 
all that hateful doctor ! ” 

Rob dropped his head on his arms again and 
a smothered groan escaped him. 

Dudley continued his run out into the stable- 
yard, from thence to the road, and he never 
stopped till he reached old Principle’s little 
three-cornered shop. 

Old Principle was busy serving customers 
when he came in ; he gave him a friendly nod, 
and went on with his business whilst Dudley 
crept into the little back parlor, and sitting 
down in an old horsehair chair tried to recover 
his breath. It was not long before old Princi- 
ple came after him. 

“ Well, my laddie,” he said, laying his hand 


lOO 


His Big Opportunity 


on the curly head, “there’s sad news going 
through the village this morning, and I see by 
your face that ’tis true ! ” 

Dudley nodded and then seizing hold of the 
old man’s hand, leaned his head against it and 
burst into tears. 

“ Why does God do it ! ” he sobbed at length, 
“ Roy is so much better than I am, he’s always 
trying to please God, though he never talks 
about it, and I’ve prayed so hard that he might 
be made quite well ! ” 

“ Ay, and the good Lord is making him well 
perhaps though not by the way you planned. 
He might a been killed outright, and then 
what a trouble you’d have been in.” 

“ This is nearly as bad,” muttered Dudley. 

“ How, laddie, don’t harden your heart, are 
you one of the Lord’s own children ? ” 

“ I don’t know. I don’t think I love God as 
much as Roy does.” 

“ ’Tis an awful bad principle,” the old man 
continued, “to doubt and complain directly 
we can’t understand the Almighty’s dealings 
with us. He loves Master Roy better’n you 
and me, and the time will come when we’ll 
thank the Lord with all our hearts for this 
accident.” 

This was utterly incomprehensible to Dud- 
lev. 

“ I feel very badly about it,” old Principle 


Making His Will 


101 


went on, “and so do you, but the one I’m 
most sorry for is Ben Burkstone. I hear say 
he’s fit to kill himself with despair ! ” 

“Well,” said Dudley, stopping his sobs for a 
minute ; “ I don’t see it was his fault ; it was 
the stupid pony ; he funked it, and then fell 
and broke his knees ; mine went over all right. 
Oh, why didn’t it happen to me ! If I had 
been spilled, I wouldn’t have minded, and one 
leg wouldn’t have been half so bad to me as to 
Roy ! ” 

“ I reckon you’d have got your leg all right 
again without having to lose it. ’Tis the 
laddie’s delicate constitution that is so in his 
way. But I think you’ll find Master Roy 
as plucky over the loss of his leg as he ever 
was. Row lift your heart up to God and ask 
Him that He may overrule it all for good. 
There goes the shop-bell ! ” 

Old Principle disappeared, and Dudley 
soothed and comforted by his sympathy, re- 
traced his steps to the house. 

Meanwhile Miss Bertram had been going 
through the trying ordeal of breaking the news 
to the little invalid. 

Roy was lying in bed, flushed and restless. 
His eyes looked unnaturally large and bright, 
as he met his aunt’s anxious gaze. 

“I’m so tired of pain, Aunt Judy, and I 
can’t get to sleep.” 


102 


His Big Opportunity 


Miss Bertram sat down and smiled her 
brightest smile. 

Taking his thin little hand in hers she said 
tenderly, 

“ Yes, dear, you’ve been a brave little pa- 
tient, but I hope you won’t have much more to 
bear. You would like to be free from it, 
wouldn’t you ? ” 

“ Am I going to die ? ” 

“We hope you’re going to get quite well 
again, if God wills, and if you will be a good 
boy and let the doctor cure you.” 

Roy’s eyes were fixed intently on his aunt 
now. 

“ How are they going to cure me ? ” 

Then Miss Bertram nerved herself for the 
occasion. 

“ Roy, dear, you have been so patient since 
you lay here, that I know you will be patient 
over this. Doctor Grant says that your leg will 
never heal as it is, but he is sure you will get 
well and strong again if — if you will make up 
your mind to do without it.” 

“ Does that mean he is going to cut it off ? ” 

“Yes.” 

Dead silence, broken only by the flapping of 
the window-curtains in the breeze. Roy was 
not looking at his aunt now, but his eyes were 
fixed on the distant hills through the open 
window. A blackbird now hovering on some 


Making His Will 


103 


jasmine outside, suddenly lifted up his voice 
and burst into an exultant song. A faint 
smile flickered about Roy’s lips. 

“ Do legs never grow again like teeth ? ” 

The pathos of tone saved Miss Bertram from 
smiling at the comicality of the question. 

“ I’m afraid not, dear. Hot until we reach 
heaven.” 

Then there was silence again, broken at last 
by Roy’s saying in a very quiet tone, — 

“ I want to see Dudley.” 

Miss Bertram rose from her seat, but first 
she stooped to kiss him. 

“ You are quite a little hero,” she said ; “ I 
will send David to you. My poor little Jona- 
than ! ” 

A hot tear splashed on Roy’s forehead ; he 
put up his hand and stroked his aunt’s face. 

“Never mind, Aunt Judy, David made a 
better king than Jonathan would have I ex- 
pect. Don’t call Dudley just yet — I — I want 
to be alone.” 

Miss Bertram left him, but sat down outside 
his door on a broad window ledge and cried 
like a child. 

And then a short time after, Dudley stole 
softly into the room and Roy’s arms were 
clinging round his neck. 

“ Oh, Dudley, I’ve wanted you, kiss me ! ” 


104 His Big Opportunity 

“You’re going to get well, old chap, aren’t 
you ? You’ll soon be out in the garden again.” 

Dudley was speaking in the gruff quick 
tones he used when trying to hide his feel- 
ings. 

“ We’ll talk about that presently,” said Roy, 
lying back on his pillows and making Dudley 
take a seat on his bed. “ Dudley, do you know 
what a will is ? ” 

“Yes; you’ve a strong will nurse always 
says.” 

“ No, not that kind of one. Uncle James 
left a will when he died saying he left Nor- 
rington Court to father, and father left it to 
me. It’s a piece of thick paper they write it 
down on, and it has some sealing wax on it. 
Aunt Judy showed me father’s will once.” 

Dudley did not look enlightened, so Roy 
went on, — 

“I want you to get a piece of paper and 
write down my will for me. I will tell you 
what to say.” 

Dudley slipped out of the room obediently 
and returned with a sheet of note paper, but 
this did not satisfy Roy. “ It must be a large 
sheet — very large,” was his command. 

After some minutes’ search Dudley came in 
with a sheet of foolscap, and then with pen 
and ink he began to write at Roy’s dictation : 

“ When I am dead ” — 


Making His Will 105 

But Dudley’s pen stopped. “You are not 
going to die, Roy ? ” 

“ I hope I am,” was the unexpected reply ; 
“ I’ve been asking God to make me. I 
shouldn’t think many people lived after their 
legs were cut off : I know I don’t want to ! ” 

“ But I want you to live,” cried poor Dud- 
ley ; “ oh ! Roy you couldn’t be so mean as to 
leave me all alone. Oh, do unsay that prayer 
of yours. You mustn’t die ! ” 

“ I’m going to get quite ready to die,” per- 
sisted Roy ; “ and if you really loved me you 
wouldn’t think of liking to see me alive hopping 
about on a wooden leg, I couldn’t do it.” 

“Nelson lived with only one arm,” said 
Dudley. 

Roy lay back on his pillows to consider 
this ; then he said in a tired voice : 

“ Will you write what I want ? ” 

Dudley seized the pen and in round, childish 
hand wrote as follows : 

“ When I am dead, Dudley is to have Nor- 
rington Court for his very own, and he is to 
live there instead of me. He can have Dibble 
and Nibble too. Rob is to have my musical 
box. I leave him my best tool box, and fa- 
ther’s red silk pocket-handkerchief which I 
keep in the old tobacco pot on my chimney- 
piece. I leave granny her sovereign which 
she gave me, and my book ‘Heroes of old 


106 His Big Opportunity 

England.’ Aunt Judy is to have my best 
four-bladed knife, and my prayer book. I 
want old Principle to have my silver mug and 
my new writing case. I leave nurse the sover- 
eign my guardian gave me to get herself some 
new shoes, and I leave her my Bible.” 

Thus far ; then Roy gave a tired sigh. Dud- 
ley having entered completely into the spirit 
of the thing looked up and said eagerly, 
“ There’s your telescope, you know, Roy ! If 
you leave it to me, I’ll let you look through it 
when we’re off on our travels.” 

“ I shall never travel with no legs — besides I 
shall be dead. I’ll leave my telescope to you.” 

Dudley subsided at once ; then after a si- 
lence he asked meekly, “ Is that enough ? ” 

“ Yes, I’m so tired, put — 6 I leave all my old 
clothes to the village boys, and my cricket bat 
and stumps to Ben ’ — but wait a minute, Dud- 
ley — there are all the servants, and I’ve got 
such heaps of books and toys — I think we’ll 
leave it like that.” 

Dudley looked at his paper with some pride. 

“I’ve only made six mistakes and three 
blots,” he said ; “ now may I drop the sealing 
wax over it ? I’ve got a lovely red piece in 
my pocket.” 

“ I think I have to write my name at the 
bottom first, I know father did. Give me the 
pen.” 


Making His Will 107 

Dudley handed it, and wondered why Roy’s 
fingers shook so as he signed his name. 

“ Is that all ? ” 

“No, wait a moment. I want to write 
something myself.” 

And then in a large scrawl at the bottom of 
the paper Roy wrote — 

“ This boy died before he had time to serve 
the Queen, he tried to serve God, and he tried 
to do good to some people, only they turned 
out mistakes. He hopes the Queen will forgive 
him; he knows God will. Amen.” 

Dudley read this with awe. 

“ And is that a will ? ” he asked. 

“ Yes, let me drop some sealing wax ; fetch 
a candle ! ” 

Dudley was longing to do this part himself, 
but he generously said nothing, and presented 
Roy with a brass button out of his pocket, tp 
stamp on the hot wax. 

A lot of sealing wax was dropped indiscrim- 
inately all over the paper, and then old nurse 
appeared on the scene to order Dudley off. 

“ You’ve been far too long with him already, 
to my mind,” she said ; “ if Miss Bertram 
wasn’t beside herself she would never have 
given you permission at all ; he ought to have 
been kept extra quiet, and he’s worked himself 
all in a fever again.” She put Roy gently 
back on his pillows, and did not notice in her 


108 His Big Opportunity 

short-sightedness the roll of paper being stuffed 
under his pillow. Dudley’s spirits sank to 
zero, now he was about to be dismissed. 

“ Good-bye, Roy, ask to see me again, won’t 
you ? ” 

Roy held out his hand. 

“I’ll talk about it to-morrow,” he said, 
faintly. 

And Dudley .crept out of the room feeling 
more forlorn and wretched than ever. 


X 


A CEIPPLE 

It was all over ; two doctors had been clos- 
etted in the bedroom for a very long time, and 
then Dudley and Rob, sitting on the garden 
steps, were told that everything had been suc- 
cessfully carried out, and Roy was as well and 
better than had been expected. 

“ I never saw such fortitude and calm self- 
control in my life,” said Miss Bertram to her 
mother ; “ it was unnatural for a child of his 
age ! ” 

“ He is a true Bertram in spirit,” said the 
grandmother, proudly ; then she added with a 
sigh, “ but, alas, not in body.” 

“ Nurse,” said Dudley that night as he was 
creeping into bed under her charge ; “ is Roy 
going to die ? ” 

“ I hope not,” answered nurse, a little tear- 
fully. “ Doctor Grant says he’ll make a good 
recovery, but he whispered himself to me — 
Master Roy did just before he took the sleep- 
ing draught — ‘ Nurse I’ll have my leg buried 
with me ! ’ he says.” 

Dudley was silent for a minute, then he 
asked, solemnly, “ And where is it, nurse ? ” 

109 


no 


His Big Opportunity 


Nurse turned upon him tearfully and angrily, 
“ I believe as how you haven’t one speck of 
feeling for that blessed darling, you naughty 
boy ! To talk of such a thing in such a way 
with not a tear on your face ! And to think 
of him laying there a helpless cripple, and him 
the owner of the biggest estate in the county ! ” 
Dudley crept into bed feeling he had no 
more tears to shed, wondering when he would 
be allowed to see Roy again, and also wonder- 
ing who was the possessor of his lost leg. 

It was a fortnight before he was allowed to 
see the little invalid, and when the boys met, 
Dudley gazed with deep pity on Roy’s white 
little face, looking smaller and whiter than 
ever. But he welcomed him with a smile. 

“ It’s years since you were here, old chap.” 
“Yes,” responded Dudley, “and it’s been 
the most miserablest years of my life.” 

“ I thought I was going to die then,” con- 
tinued Roy, with still the same smile ; “ but 
God wouldn’t let me. He was determined I 
should live, and do you know I’ve been think- 
ing it out. I really believe it is because He is 
going to let me do something great still. And 
Doctor Grant has been telling me of a man in 
Parliament who took all the house by storm, 
and brought in a most wonderful law that 
thousands of people blessed him for, and he — 
he had a cork leg ! ” 


A Cripple 


ill 


Certainly Roy had not lost his buoyancy of 
spirits. Dudley drew a deep breath of relief, 
and for the first time began to see brighter 
times ahead. 

“ And I’m going to have a cork leg,” went 
on Roy, “ a leg that if I press a spring I can 
kick out. Think of that ! ” 

Dudley looked beaming, exclaiming, — 

“ And it will be very convenient to have a 
leg with no feeling, won’t it, especially about 
the knee when you’re crawling along a wall 
with broken bottles.” 

“I’m going to see Rob to-morrow,” an- 
nounced Roy, after a little more conversation. 
“Has he learned to read while I have been 
ill?” 

Dudley shook his head. 

“Ho, we tried one afternoon on the wall, 
but we were too miserable, so we stopped.” 

“ Well, I can teach him here in bed. That’s 
one thing you don’t want a leg to do ! ” 

“I say, Roy,” Dudley asked, very cau- 
tiously ; “ don’t you feel very funny without 
it?” 

Roy looked away for a minute without 
answering, and then he said slowly : 

“ I try and not think about it. It will be 
worse when I get up — people might think 
when they see me in bed that I’m all right, 
but they’ll know the truth when I’m up.” 


112 His Big Opportunity 

Then he added more cheerfully, “ It’s awfully 
queer, but do you know I’d never know it wasn’t 
there as far as the feeling goes. Why I can 
feel the pain right down to my toes now. And 
at night I’m always dreaming I’m running 
races with you as fast as I can, and then I 
wake and can’t believe I’ll never run again.” 

As Roy grew stronger he had more visitors ; 
Rob came to him every day for a reading les- 
son, and old Principle brought him books and 
sweets. Ben was allowed an interview, and 
the old groom, with tears running down his 
cheeks, besought Roy to forgive him. 

“ I never ought to allowed you, and ’twas 
me that egged you on and sent you to your 
death ! ” 

“No, it was my own fault, Ben,” said Roy, 
humbly, “ and the thing that pains me most — 
more than breaking my leg — is to think that I 
should be the first Bertram who has failed. 
Dudley did it, and I didn’t, and of course I 
shall never be able to try it again. Perhaps I 
was too proud of what I could do. We have 
a picture in the nursery of a boy standing on 
the top of a bridge, and then tumbling in the 
water; it’s called ‘Pride must have a fall.’ 
I’ve had a fall, haven’t I, Ben ? ” 

Ben came out from that interview declaring 
that “ Master Roy ought to be sainted ! ” 

One afternoon Rob was finishing his reading 


A Cripple 113 

lesson when he looked up and said, a little 

shyly, 

“ Master Roy, you mind what you were a 
telling me of once — about what your father 
told you. Do you think as how I could do it 
too ? ” 

“ Of course you could, Rob. All of us ought 
to serve God.” 

“ I’ve been thinking a deal about it, and I 
should like to, if I knew how.” 

“Well, the Bible tells you. I remember 
nurse made me learn a text a long time ago, 
‘ If any man serve me let him follow me.’ It’s 
just following Jesus I suppose, and doing what 
He wants us to do.” 

“How can we follow somebody we can’t 
see ? ” 

Roy knitted his brows. Rob’s questions 
were hard to answer sometimes, and then a 
smile flashed across his face. 

“ I’ll tell you. It’s like this. On my birth- 
day granny called me in to give me a birthday 
talk and, of course, she talked to me about my 
property. She said my uncle had managed it 
awfully well over there, and she hoped I would 
walk in his steps. That would be following 
him though he was dead, wouldn’t it ? ” 

“ Ye-es,” was the slow response. 

“ And so you see,” Roy replied, leaning for- 
ward impressively, and his eyes glistening with 


ii4 


His Big Opportunity 


earnestness, “we can each follow Jesus. Try 
and live as He did, and do and speak like 
Him. We read how He lived in the Hew 
Testament.” 

“And He was the one that died for us,” 
Kob said, reflectively. 

“Yes, He is the one you go to, to get your 
sins washed away. That comes first before we 
begin to serve Him.” 

“ But I never could serve Him proper, 
always,” objected Bob. 

“ Ho, nor more can any one. I’m awful, you 
know ! Dudley says I think such a lot of my- 
self. And of course Jesus never did. And I 
grumble and cry over my leg every day, and 
of course He wouldn’t have done it. But 
Jesus forgives us again and again, and helps 
us to be good, and that’s why we love Him, 
and because He died for us.” 

“Would He forgive me, and help me?” 
asked Kob; “are you quite sure He would 
care to have me for a servant ? ” 

“ Of course I’m sure. He wants everybody. 
You just ask Him.” 

Kob said no more. He was a lad of few 
words, and for some days did not touch on the 
subject again. His reading was progressing 
rapidly, and when Koy and Dudley found out 
that his birthday was near they laid their 
heads together and presented him with a 


A Cripple 1 15 

handsome Bible, as they knew he was saving 
up his pennies to buy one. 

Ilis gratitude and delight overwhelmed 
them, and every day now, when his work 
was finished, he would sit doAvn and spell out 
chapters of the gospels to himself. 

As the days began to shorten, Roy grew so 
much stronger that he was able to be carried 
downstairs, and the first evening he was in the 
drawing-room, he asked Miss Bertram for the 
song of the two little drummer boys. 

She sat down at the piano, and Dudley see- 
ing Rob weeding a flower bed outside the open 
window, beckoned to him to come up closer 
and listen. 

“ It’s the best song out,” he shouted. 

Roy’s face shone as Miss Bertram’s sweet 
voice rang out triumphantly. 

— “ * the fight was won, and the regiment saved 
By those two little dots in red I ’ ” 

“ Oh, how I wish I could be a soldier ! ” was 
‘the muttered exclamation of Roy, “I shall 
never be able to serve the Queen now ! ” 

“Honsense,” said Miss Bertram, briskly; 
“ granny would tell you 6 that all the Bertrams 
have always served the Queen, and only a few 
of them have been soldiers ! ’ ” 

“Well, I suppose they have been sailors?” 
said Dudley. 


Ii6 His Big Opportunity 

“ Not at all ; we have only had one admiral, 
and three naval captains in our family during 
the last hundred years. Your father, Dudley, 
served the Queen as a governor in India quite 
as well as if he were fighting for her. Boy’s 
father was her servant in Canada, though he 
had to do with politics; your uncle James 
served as a member of Parliament. The 
Queen has numbers of servants. I always 
think policemen are quite as brave as sol- 
diers ! ” 

“ And what can a one-legged Bertram do ? ” 
Boy asked, with a pathetic smile that went 
straight to his aunt’s heart. 

“There’s no reason why he shouldn’t go 
into Parliament, and perhaps end by being a 
member of the cabinet.” 

“I never quite understand what that is,” 
said Boy, contemplatively. “ I don’t think I 
should like to be shut up in a stuffy cupboard. 
They shut them up in it to talk, don’t they. 
Aunt Judy ? ” 

How Miss Bertram laughed! But whilst 
she was explaining what a cabinet was, Bob 
crept away from the window muttering, “I 
suppose as how I could be a policeman, but 
I’d a deal rather be a soldier ! ” 


XI 


A GIFT TO THE QUEEN 

“ Can I see Master Roy, please ? ” 

It was Rob who spoke, and he seemed breath- 
less with haste and importance, as he stood at 
the front door one cold afternoon the end of 
October. 

“ You can give me your message,” the young 
footman said, rather superciliously. 

“ Xo, I can’t,” was the blunt retort ; “ ask 
Master Roy to speak to me.” 

Rob gained his point, and was ushered into 
the library where Roy and Dudley were amus- 
ing themselves in the firelight. 

The old nursery was not much used now, 
and the library had begun to be considered 
the boys’ room, partly because owing to it 
being on the ground floor, and opening into 
the garden, it was more convenient for Roy’s 
use. 

Roy was now the possessor of a cork leg ; 
and with the help of a stick he was nearly as 
active as ever. His spirits were as high, and 
his purposes as plentiful as before his illness ; 
and his grandmother and aunt marvelled that 
he could take his deformity so lightly. Yet 
117 


1 1 8 His Big Opportunity 

there were times unknown to any, when Boy’s 
brave little heart sank with the consciousness 
of it; and often in bed at night his pillow 
would be wet with tears. 

“ Oh, God,” he would often pray, “ you 
wouldn’t let me die, do help me to do some- 
thing worth living for. I feel my leg will 
keep away all the opportunities now, but 
please give me something big to do for you 
still.” 

“Hulloo, Bob, come on,” was Boy’s excla- 
mation as he caught sight of his friend. “ Just 
look at Nibble and Dibble, we’re teaching 
them to draw a cart. It makes you die of 
laughing to look at them. There they go, and 
Dibble turns head over heels in his excite- 
ment ! ” 

Boy’s happy laugh rang out, but though 
Dudley joined him, Bob’s face was grave and 
set. 

“Please, can I speak to you on business, 
Master Boy ? ” 

“ Goody ! What a long face ! ” exclaimed 
Dudley, pulling down his own in imitation 
of Bob’s, and thereby causing a fresh peal 
of laughter from Boy. “Have you been a 
naughty boy, Bob, and has old Hal been 
thrashing you? Have you been skylarking 
on the top of the greenhouse, and smashed 
through on Hal’s pate ? ” 


n 9 


A Gift to the Oueen 

“I should like to speak to Master Eoy, 
alone,” said Eob, a little wistfully ; in no way 
disturbed by Dudley’s teasing. 

“ Oh, it’s one of your secrets again. FJd be 
off, Eoy, I want to see old Principle ! ” 

And Dudley dashed out of the room, whilst 
Eob came nearer and began his “ business.” 

“Master Eoy, I’ve been thinking a lot 
lately, and Miss Bertram asked me the other 
day if I’d like any other job for the winter as 
there’s hardly enough work for me in the gar- 
den now. And yesterday I saw a chap in the 
village I used to know. He’s a recruiting ser- 
geant for the shire regiment, and he wants 

me to enlist straight away. I wouldn’t have 
given it a thought only what you said about 
serving the Queen has stuck to me, and it does 
seem a chance, and somehow that song has 
been in my head ever since I heard Miss Ber- 
tram sing it. I’d like to be in a regiment.” 

Eob paused for breath, and Eoy’s eyes were 
wide open with wonder and astonishment. 

“ But, Eob, you aren’t old enough to be a 
soldier yet ! ” 

“ I’m just the age — they take them at eigh- 
teen, and I was that the other day, only I 
don’t look it.” 

“But you’re going to be my servant. I 
couldn’t let you go.” 

Eob’s face fell. 


120 


His Big Opportunity 


“I thought I could have seven years — or 
even twelve years would hardly find you ready 
to take up your property. And then I’d come 
back to you and never leave you again ! ” 

“ But I want you Avith me now — always ” — 
said Boy, in a distressed tone ; “ I couldn’t do 
without you all that time, and it’s horrid of 
you to want to get away from here, I think.” 

“ All right, Master Boy, I won’t go — I’ll get 
a job in the village that will keep me close at 
hand.” 

Bob tried to speak cheerfully, and after 
waiting a minute to see if Boy would say any 
more, he left the room quietly ; all the light 
having died out of his honest grey eyes. 

Boy watched the antics of his mice in the 
firelight, but his thoughts were far away from 
them. At last he opened the door and made 
his way up to his grandmother’s room to have 
his usual chat with her before tea. 

“ Granny, if a person you like will do any- 
thing you like, ought you to make that person 
do what you like instead of what they like ? ” 
“ It sounds like a riddle,” said Mrs. Bertram, 
with a smile. “ I won’t ask who the person is, 
the question is whether you like that person or 
yourself best. Which do you ? ” 

Boy did not answer for a minute, then he 
hung his head. 

“ I’m afraid I like myself best.” 


121 


A Gift to the Queen 

“ If you give me more details, perhaps I can 
advise you.” 

“Well, granny, may I talk first to Dudley 
about it, and then I’ll tell you. But you see 
it’s like this — the person wants to please you, 
and you can’t pretend to be pleased if he does 
what doesn’t please you ! ” 

“I think the best plan would be to leave 
yourself out of the question entirely, and only 
think of the other person ; that would be the 
most unselfish way.” 

Roy knitted his brows and heaved a heavy 
sigh. 

“ Am I a very selfish person, granny ? ” 

“You are much more selfish than Dudley 
is,” said Mrs. Bertram, decidedly, who never 
minced matters with her grandsons. 

Roy flushed a deep crimson, and his grand- 
mother added, 

“I do not say that you are altogether to 
blame, for Dudley has always given way to 
you and spoiled you ; but you do not very 
often think of his wishes before your own.” 

“No, I never do.” 

Roy’s tone was of the deepest dejection ; 
but the sudden entrance of Dudley gave a turn 
to the conversation, and he gradually recov- 
ered his spirits. 

When the two boys were at their tea half 
an hour later, Roy spread the whole matter 


122 


His Big Opportunity 


before Dudley who looked at it in quite a dif- 
ferent light. 

“ How stunning ! And is he really going ? 
Hurray ! One of us will be a soldier, at any 
rate. I wish I was big enough to go with 
him.” 

“ But I don’t want him to go, and I told 
him so, and he isn’t going ! ” 

Dudley opened his eyes at this. 

“You going to keep him back? Why 
you’re the one that’s always talking about 
serving the Queen, and fighting for her ! ” 
“Yes, I should like to, but — but Rob is dif- 
ferent. I want him to be with me.” 

“ Then you don’t care about serving the 
Queen, if you’re going to do her out of a sol- 
dier who might fight for her ! ” 

This was quite a new aspect of the affair. 

“ You think I’m like the dog in the manger? 
I can’t go myself and I don’t want him to. 
But if you go to a boarding school like Aunt 
Judy talks of, and I’m not allowed to go with 
you, and Rob is gone, I shall be left all alone ; 
and I hate being alone, you don’t know how I 
hate it — I think I should die ! ” 

“Well, if I was you and knew I couldn’t be 
a soldier myself, I would love to send some 
one instead of me — you know how they do in 
France. Old Selby was telling us. They pay 


A Gift to the Queen 123 

a subsidy — substitute — don’t you call it? — to 
go and fight for them.” 

“ Yes, that is the coward’s way,” Roy said, 
scornfully. 

He paused for a minute, and then his eyes 
flashed fire. 

“ Yes, Dudley, I’ll let him go. It’s me that’s 
the coward to try and keep him back! You 
and I shall send him, and he shall be our sub- 
stitute, and when we hear of him doing brave 
things, we shall feel it’s ourselves. And we’ll 
make him write letters to us and tell us all he 
is doing — oh, it will be splendid. How glad 
I am he has learned to read and write. Dud- 
ley, you just go and fetch him in, will you ? ” 

Dudley crammed rather a large piece of 
cake into his mouth, and dashed out of the 
room ; and a few minutes later dragged in the 
would-be soldier. 

“We’ve settled you can go, Rob,” said Roy, 
with a little of his masterful air about him ; 
“ only you’re to go as our soldier. I think if 
I had had a good, broad, strong chest and 
never broke my leg, I should have enlisted, 
but you can go instead of me. Are you glad ? ” 

“I’m sorry to leave you, Master Roy, but 
I’d dearly like to go.” 

“We must tell granny and Aunt Judy, and 
see what they say first. But I’m sure they’d 
like you to go.” 


124 


His Big Opportunity 


No objection was made. Miss Bertram was 
rather pleased than otherwise. 

“He will make a good soldier,” she said, 
when talking it over with the boys ; “ he is a 
steady, reliable lad, with not too many ideas 
of his own, and implicitly obedient.” 

“ Is that what makes a good soldier ? ” asked 
Roy. “ I thought it was dash and bravery.” 

“ Dash is a dangerous quality. Steady per- 
severance is better, Jonathan ! ” 

The next few days were most exciting ones 
for the boys. Roy and Rob had many a long 
talk together, and very earnest and serious 
subjects were touched upon. Rob had little 
time left to bid his friends farewell, but he 
went to old Principle, as a matter of course. 

“Yes,” said the old man, a little proudly; 
“ all the younger folks going out in life comes 
to me for a parting word. They laughs at me 
and my principles, but I’m proud of my nick- 
name, and ’tis only right principles will make 
a man live right, and they knows it. What 
can I say to you, lad, but fear God and honor 
the Queen and those in authority under her. 
Never be afraid of holding to the right and 
denouncing the wrong, and may God Al- 
mighty take* your body and soul in His keep- 
ing until we meet again.” 

Rob’s last day came, and an hour before 
his departure, in company with his friend, the 


A Gift to the Queen 125 

sergeant, he came up to the Manor to bid them 
all farewell. Roy had some farewell words 
with him in the privacy of his bedroom. 

“We shall miss you awfully,” he said, walk- 
ing up and down the room to hide his emo- 
tion ; “ and it makes me wish I had your 
chance. But you’ll remember, Rob, I look 
to you to be a rattling good soldier, much bet- 
ter than I should have been, and you’ll be sure 
to do something grand and brave the very 
first opportunity, won’t you? You must get 
the Victoria Cross, of course, and the account 
of you must be in the newspapers, so that we 
can read about you. And I shall pray that 
God will keep you safe, Rob. I hope you’ll 
never have an arm or leg shot off, though I 
think that would be better than having them 
cut off. I hope you’ll come back safe and 
sound. When shall we see you again ? ” 

“ The sergeant told me I should get a month 
or six weeks’ leave this time next year, Master 
Roy.” 

“A year is a very long time. Rob, if I 
should die before I grow up, I want you to 
promise me that you will be Dudley’s servant 
instead of mine. He will be master of Nor- 
rington Court, then, and I want you to live 
there.” 

“ But you aren’t going to die, Master Roy, 
you will live and do great things yet.” 


126 


His Big Opportunity 


Roy shook his head a little sadly. 

“ Sometimes I wonder if I ever will. I 
won’t give up trying, but I shall never be 
anything but half a man, with my cork leg 
and my weak chest. Dudley would make a 
much grander master. Still there’s one thing I 
can do. I can serve God — and I’ve sent you to 
serve the Queen, and I can try to serve my 
fellow creatures. Good-bye, dear Rob, will 
you kiss me.” 

And then forgetting his dignity, Roy flung 
his arms round Rob’s neck and hugged him 
passionately. “ I’ll never forget you carrying 
me home that night,” he whispered in his ear, 
“ I loved you from that time. And Rob you’ll 
do what father told me to do — serve God 
first.” 

Rob nodded, and as he knelt on the ground 
holding the frail little figure to him, he made 
a promise there and then in his heart that he 
would never do or say anything that he would 
be ashamed of Roy’s hearing. 

“ They’re calling me, Master Roy, good-bye.” 

He was gone, and Roy sitting down on the 
floor, leaned his head against his bed and burst 
into tears. 

Dudley found him there, and soon comforted 
him. 

“ Look here, if you like it, let us get upon 
the wall and see Rob and the sergeant drive 


12 7 


A Gift to the Oueen 

by ; we can just see the high road, and Eob 
had to go to the inn first, so we shall have 
plenty of time.” 

Eoy’s whole face beamed, he seized his stick 
and limped after Dudley without a thought of 
his leg, but when he reached the wall he came 
to a standstill. 

“ I’m afraid I can’t climb it, Dudley, I’ve 
never been on it since my leg was broken ! ” 

But Dudley would take no denial. 

“ Oh, yes, you can, I’ll hoist you up, we’ll 
manage it.” 

And “ manage it ” they did to Eoy’s intense 
delight, though Mrs. Bertram would have 
been horror-struck at the narrow escape the 
little invalid had, of falling to the ground 
during the proceeding. 

When they saw the trap in the distance, 
they set up a wild cheer, and waved their 
handkerchiefs frantically, and when they were 
answered by a cheer and a fluttering piece of 
white, they felt quite satisfied at their fare- 
well. 

Before they got down from their high perch, 
Eoy said, earnestly, “ If God sent us Eob as 
an opportunity, Dudley, I wonder if we did 
him good.” 

“Well, you see he was such a lot bigger 
than us, and Aunt Judy says she never saw 
such a steady good boy ; it’s very difficult to 


128 


His Big Opportunity 


do good to good people, because you want to 
be so extra good yourself.” 

“ At any rate, we’ve made bim the Queen’s 
soldier.” 

“Yes,” argued Dudley, pro vokingly ; “but 
he was the first one that thought of it ! ” 

“ Oh, shut up,” was Boy’s impatient retort ; 
“he told me himself it was the song of Jake 
and Jim that did it, and — and my talking to 
him.” 

“ And I expect the sergeant thinks it’s all 
his doing.” 

“But he wouldn’t have gone unless I had 
told him he might.” 

And as usual Boy had the last word. 


XII 


LETTERS 

Very disappointed were the boys at Rob’s 
first letter, which arrived about a fortnight 
after he had gone to the regimental depot at a 
neighboring town. 

“ Dear Master Eoy : 

“ I hope you and Master Dudley are 
quite well as it leaves me at present. I like it 
first-rate, but it is hard work, and I have a 
good many masters, but I means to do my 
best. God bless you. 

“ From your faithful 

“ Rob.” 

“ That’s not a letter at all ! ” said Roy, scorn- 
fully ; “ why he tells us nothing at all ! Why 
he might have gone to school and told us 
more ! That from a soldier. It’s the stupidest 
rot I’ve ever heard ! ” 

“I think you forget what a poor scholar 
Rob is,” said Miss Bertram, reprovingly. 
“ Xow I think that is a remarkably good letter 
when I think what a short time he has been 
learning to write. You boys had better each 
write a proper letter to him yourselves, and 
129 


130 His Big Opportunity 

ask him what you want to know. He will 
like to hear from you.” 

And so that afternoon, sitting up in state at 
the library table, the boys spread out their 
writing materials and began to write. 

“ I feel,” said Roy, biting the end of his pen 
and looking up at the ceiling for an inspira- 
tion, “ that I don’t know quite how to begin. 
I should like to tell him not to write like an 
ass, when he knows he ought to tell us every- 
thing.” 

“ All right, tell him so,” said Dudley, squar- 
ing his elbow and frowning terribly as he pre- 
pared himself for the task. “ You know what 
old Selby says : ‘ Make your paper talk, my 

boys, and make it talk in your own tongues.’ ” 

After a great many interruptions from each 
other, and a few skirmishes round the table 
which resulted in the ink bottle being spilt, the 
letters were finished. 

Roy read his aloud with pride to Dudley, 
who did the same to him. 

“ My dear Rob : 

“ You must write us longer letters. I 
am quite sure there is lots to tell. What do 
you have to eat? And where do you sleep ? 
Have you got a gun of your own ? Do they 
let soldiers shoot rabbits on their half -holidays ? 
Does the band play while you are at dinner ? 


Letters 


*31 

What are your clothes like, and what are you 
to be called, now you’re a soldier? When 
will you be a sergeant, and is there any fight- 
ing coining off soon? Old Principle says 
you will be learning drill. What is drill ? He 
says it’s learning how to march, but Dudley 
and I can do that first-rate. How many mas- 
ters have you got ? Write to me to-morrow 
and tell me all. I hope you will remember 
you are our soldier, and be sure you do some- 
thing very grand as quick as ever you can. 
Have you got a sword and a medal ? Do you 
ride on a horse, and can you fire off the can- 
non ? I miss you very much but you belong 
to us, and must come back full of glory. 

“ Your loving friend, 

“ Fitz Eoy Bertram.” 

“ My dear Rob : 

“ I hope you like being a soldier. How 
many soldiers are there in the same house with 
you ? Give them my love and tell them we 
hope they liked the cake we put in your box 
for them. Roy came down to old Principle’s 
with me yesterday. He showed us a hammer 
out of his cave he dug up. He says you will 
not be a full blown soldier for a year. He 
had a cousin who was a sergeant in India — 
and had his brains burst out in battle. When 
do you begin to fight ? Tell us if you feel 
funky, and what the enemy looks like, and who 


i3 2 


His Big Opportunity 

they are. ¥e think you ought to write us a 
much jollier letter. Roy’s leg is first-rate, and 
he is up on the garden wall now like a cat. 
¥e sit there to do our evening prep : for old 
Selby. Good-bye. We’re on the lookout for 
your name in the newspapers the first battle 
that comes off. 

“ Roy’s friend, 

“ Dudley.” 

“ I don’t think you’ve finished your letter 
properly,” observed Roy, critically, as Dudley 
concluded reading his. “Why do you write 
you’re my friend ? ” 

“ Because I am,” was the prompt reply ; 
“ I’m not Rob’s friend and I shan’t tell him I 
am. I just write to him because you do, that’s 
all.” 

“ Don’t you like him ? ” 

“ I don’t want him for my friend ; he’s 
going to be a kind of servant. Besides I 
wanted him to remember that I was your 
friend. I knew you long before he did, and 
if he was dead now, or if he never had been 
born, I should have been your friend just the 
same. We could have got on all right with- 
out him.” 

This was not the first touch of jealousy 
that had appeared in Dudley’s character. He 
had more than once quarrelled with Roy on 


Letters 


*33 


account of the boy who he said had crept in 
between them, but on Roy always emphatic- 
ally assuring him that Rob occupied a back 
place in his affections, Dudley would generally 
be appeased and become his sunny self again. 

“ I like Rob very much,” said Roy, slowly, 
“ ’specially now he’s a soldier. I was thinking 
in church last Sunday, when they were reading 
about David and Jonathan, that Jonathan had 
an armor-bearer. That’s Rob. Only I can’t 
go to battle, so I send him. Don’t you think 
that’s a nice idea ? ” 

“ Did he get killed ? ” asked Dudley, with 
interest ; “ I forget about him.” 

“ It doesn’t say — I expect he lived as long 
as Jonathan did, and then perhaps David took 
him to be his servant. That’s what I’ve 
settled with Rob, that he shall be your serv- 
ant if I die.” 

Dudley gave himself an impatient shake. 

“ Oh, shut up with that rot, you’ll live as 
long as I do ! ” 

Roy did not speak for a minute, then he 
said, slowly, “You remember my will that I 
made when I was so ill ? ” 

“ Yes, what did you do with it ? ” 

“ Aunt Judy found it the next morning on 
the floor nearly under the bed. She laughed 
a little at first, and then got quite grave when I 
explained it, and she took it away and locked it 


134 His Big Opportunity 

up somewhere. But if I never make another, 
you will remember that I have left Bob to 
you for your servant.” 

Dudley looked up with a comical gleam in 
his eye. 

“ And who gave Bob to you, old chap ? ” 

“ I took him — at least he gave himself to 
me.” 

Boy’s tone was dignity itself, but Dudley 
laughed. 

“ Well he doesn’t belong to you any longer ; 
the Queen has got him.” 

“ I have lent him to her, that’s all.” 

“ You talk of Bob as if he is a slave. 
He’s a Briton, and ‘ Britons shall be free ! ’ ” 

“So he is free, but he chose to be my 
servant when I grow up, and he shall be ! ” 

Dudley dropped the argument, for Boy’s 
face was flushing hotly, and he was wonder- 
fully patient with him since his accident. 

Miss Bertram entered the room at this 
juncture, and asked in her cheery brisk tones, 
“Would any boys like to drive me to the rail- 
way station in the pony trap ? I am going up 
to London on business, and shall be away till 
to-morrow.” 

“ Hurray,” shouted Boy ; “ we’ll come, and 
just read our letters, Aunt Judy ! Won’t they 
make Bob see how he ought to write ? ” 

Miss Bertram took the letters in her hand, 


Letters 




praised the little writers, and then sent them 
off to their rooms to get tidy for their drive. 

A short time after, Roy mounted in front 
with his aunt, was driving her with pride 
along the high road ; whilst Dudley from the 
back seat kept them lively with his chatter 
and flow of fun. 

The hoys always liked the bustle of the 
station ; and getting a lad to hold the pony, 
they followed their aunt to the platform and 
saw her on hoard the train. Some friends 
spoke to her before the train went off and 
amongst them was a certain Captain Smalley. 

“ I say,” said Dudley, nudging Roy ; “ he’s 
an officer, and he is in the army, I expect he 
knows Rob.” 

“We’ll ask him, directly the train is off.” 

But in the bustle of the last few minutes 
they missed seeing him ; the young captain 
got into his dog-cart, and was well on his way 
home before the boys were ready to start in 
their trap. 

“ Oh, I say ! See him in the distance ! Whip 
up and let us catch him. Here, let me drive, 
it’s my turn now ! ” 

But Roy clutched hold of the reins. 

“ Ho, I want to.” 

“ I tell you it’s my turn ! ” 

“ It’s the only thing I can do with one leg, 
it’s a beastly shame of you ! ” 


136 His Big Opportunity 

Dudley, who had nearly got possession of 
the coveted reins dropped them instantly. 

“ All right then, but go ahead ! ” 

And then Boy with a shamed look put the 
reins in his cousin’s hands. 

“I’ll give them up. Granny always says 
I’m selfish. It was awfully mean to talk of 
my leg. Now then hurry ! Gee-up ! ” 

Dudley took the reins with a gratified smile, 
applied the whip, and the spirited little pony 
dashed along the road at such a rate, that a 
porter looked after them in dismay. 

“ Those two young gents will come to their 
death afore they’re satisfied,” he remarked, 
and another man responded : 

“ Yes, the little one is pretty well smashed 
up already, but legs or no legs, boys allays 
keeps their sperrits ! ” 

Captain Smalley was rather startled at hear- 
ing frantic shouts behind him, and when he 
pulled up wondering if some message were to 
be delivered, he was still more bewildered by 
what he heard. 

“ Hi, Captain Smalley ! Stop for us. We’ve 
come two miles out of our way. Now then, 
Boy, go ahead ! ” 

“ Do you know Bob ? We want you to tell 
us how he is. We can’t get a word out of 
him ; is there going to be any fighting ? And 
how does he look in his clothes ? ” 


Letters 


137 


“ Who is Rob ? ” asked Captain Smalley. 
“Why, he’s a soldier like you. You must 
know him ! ” 

A few more explanations were made, and 
then the young man laughed heartily. 

“ Your young friend is learning his recruit 
drill at the depot, I should think. If he were 
in my regiment I might not be able to give 
you much information about him. The army 
is a big affair, my boys, and I doubt if Rob 
and I will ever meet.” 

The boys’ faces fell considerably. 

“ Do you think he likes it ? ” asked Roy, 
anxiously ; “ do you like being a soldier ? ” 

“ Of course I do, and if he has any stuff in 
him he will like it, too.” 

“ And will he be sent to fight very soon ? ” 

“ I dare say he may do his seven years with- 
out a single fight ! ” 

Roy looked very disappointed. 

“ If he doesn’t fight, he might just as well 
have stopped at home. What’s the good of 
being a soldier if you don’t have any battles ? ” 
“ Soldiers prevent battles, sometimes.” 

This sounded nonsense to the boys. They 
bade the captain good-bye, and turned their 
pony’s head homeward quite disconsolate. 

“ I’ll write and tell him to come home if he’s 
not going to do anything,” said Roy, with his 
little mouth pursed up determinedly. 


13 8 H is Big Opportunity 

“We’ll give him a chance, first. He may 
go out to fight. Captain Smalley didn’t say 
for certain.” 

“ I think Captain Smalley is funky himself 
about fighting, that’s what I think ! ” 

And with this disdainful assertion Roy dis- 
missed the subject. 


XIII 


OLD PRINCIPLE 

It was a soft, mild day in December. Mr. 
Selby’s study seemed close and stifling to the 
boys as they sat up at the long table with 
books and slates before them, and a blazing 
fire behind their backs. 

“This sum won’t come right, Mr. Selby,” 
groaned Roy ; “ and I’ve gone over it three 
times. It is made up of nothing but eights 
and nines. I hate nine. I wish it had never 
been made. Who made up figures, Mr. 
Selby ? ” 

Roy’s questions were rather perplexing at 
lesson time. 

“ I will tell you all about that another time,” 
was Mr. Selby’s reply. “Have another try, 
my boy : never let any difficulty master you, 
if you can help it.” 

A knock at the door, and- Mr. Selby was 
summoned to some parishioner. He was often 
interrupted when with his pupils, but they 
were generally conscientious enough to go on 
working during his absence. 

But Roy’s lesson this morning was not inter- 
esting, and he was unusually talkative. 

139 


140 


His Big Opportunity 


“ It’s no good trying to master this sum, it’s 
all those nines. They’re nasty, lanky, spiteful 
little brutes, I should like to tear them out of 
the sum-books.” 

“ Expel them from arithmetic,” said Dudley, 
looking up from a latin exercise, his sunny 
smile appearing. “ Don’t you wish we could 
have a huge dust hole to empty all the nasty 
people and things in that we don’t like ? ” 

“ Yes — I’d shovel the nines in fast enough, 
and a few eights to keep them company, and 
then I would throw in all my medicine bottles, 
and my great coat, and — and Mrs. Selby on 
the top of them ! ” 

This last clause was added in a whisper, for 
if there was any one that Boy really disliked, 
it was his tutor’s wife. She was a kind-hearted 
woman, but fidgety and fussy to the last de- 
gree, and was always in a bustle. Having no 
children, she expended all her energies on the 
parish, and there was not a domestic detail in 
any village home that escaped her eye. She 
had spoken sharply to the boys that morning 
for bringing in muddy footprints, and her 
words were still rankling in Roy’s breast. 

“ It’s so awfully hot,” Roy continued ; “ let 
us open the window, Dudley. Old Selby won’t 
mind for once ; it’s like an oven in here.” 

The window was opened with some diffi- 
culty, and the fresh air blowing in seemed de- 


Old Principle 


1 4 1 


licious to the boys. Roy clambered up on the 
old window-seat, slate in hand, but his eyes 
commanded the view of the village street, and 
the sum made slow progress in consequence. 

“ I say ! Tom White’s pig has broken loose, 
and that stupid Johnnie Dent is driving it 
straight into old Principle’s! I expect he’ll 
come out in an awful rage. No — the door 
must be shut, he can’t get in. There seems 
quite a crowd round old Principle’s. He’s giv- 
ing them a lecture, I expect. Here comes old 
Mother Selby tearing up the street, her bonnet 
strings are flying and she’s awfully excited ! ” 

A minute after the door was thrown open. 

“John, it’s the most extraordinary thing — 
oh, you are not here ! — Where is Mr. Selby ? 
I always knew something would happen to 
that old man roaming over the hills half the 
night, and digging holes big enough to bury 
himself ! John ! Where are you ? ” 

She disappeared as quickly as she had come, 
banging the door violently behind her; but 
Roy sprang down from his seat instantly. 

“ Dudley, it’s old Principle ! Something 
must have happened to him, do let us go and 
see.” 

Dudley dashed down his pen, and was vault- 
ing out of the window, when he suddenly 
stopped. 

“ Roy get your great coat, quick. Aunt 


142 His Big Opportunity 

Judy made me promise to look after you. I’ll 
wait while you get it.” 

Roy dashed out into the hall. He heard the 
rector’s voice in the distance, but was too ex- 
cited to wait to see him, and after impatiently 
tugging on his objectionable coat, he limped 
olf as quickly as he could, joining Dudley at 
the garden gate. They heard the news on the 
way to old Principle’s. It appeared that the 
old man had gone out the afternoon before, 
and had never come home. His shop was shut 
up exactly as he had left it, and the woman 
who went in every day to do his cleaning and 
cooking for him, was the first one to notice his 
absence. The group of idle women round his 
door were busily discussing the question when 
the boys arrived. 

“ I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if as how he 
has made away with hisself,” suggested one, 
knowingly. “ I always did say as he were 
queer in the head, a makin’ out of a pack o’ 
stones such amazin’ stories ! And a mutterin’ 
to hisself like no ordinary creetur, and a 
walkin’ through the woods and fields as if he 
seed nothin’ but what other folks couldn’t see 
at all ! ” 

“ Ah, now ! To think of it ! And Bill is a 
goin’ down the river to find his body ; for him 
and Walter Hitchcock have searched the whole 
place since seven o’clock this mornin’ ! ” 


Old Principle 


H3 


“May be there’s a murder in it,” said a 
young woman, cheerfully. “ He were an old 
man to wander off alone, and there’s allays 
evil-doers round about for the unprotected.” 

The boys listened to these and similar con- 
jectures with frightened eyes; then Dudley 
whispered, 

“ I believe he is in his cave, Roy ; we’ll go 
and look for him. Only don’t tell these women 
about it, because he hasn’t told anybody but 
us where it is.” 

They left the shop and started for the hills, 
but Roy’s lameness made progress very slow. 

At last he stopped, and struggling to hide 
his disappointment said, “ You’ll have to go on 
without me, Dudley. I only keep you back. 
This old leg of mine always comes in the way.” 

Dudley stopped to consider. “It’s a very 
long way, but we must get there somehow. 
Hulloo, here’s just the thing.” 

They had stopped at a small inn at the out- 
skirts of the village ; and tied to the drinking 
trough outside, was a rough pony and cart 
whose owner was enjoying himself in the tap 
room with his friends. 

“Jump in, Roy. It’s to save old Principle, 
and anybody would be glad to lend his cart 
for that.” 

Roy was not long in acting upon this ad- 
vice. The pony trotted forward briskly, and 


144 


His Big Opportunity 


the hoys would have thoroughly enjoyed this 
escapade, except for the fears of their friend’s 
safety. 

“ If anything has happened to him, the vil- 
lage will go to the dogs ! ” Boy asserted, em- 
phatically; “old Hal said the other day he 
was worth a couple of parsons. When I grow 
up, I think I shall try and be like him. I 
shall give good advice to everybody without 
ever scolding them, that is what he does.” 

“ Do you think he is dead ? ” asked Dudley, 
“ I don’t think he can be. Why it was only 
the day before yesterday we saw him, and he 
was as well as we are.” 

It seemed a long time before they reached 
the cave; the hills were steep and the pony 
rather old, and more than once Dudley felt in- 
clined to run forward on his own two legs. 
Boy at last suggested this. 

“ I can drive up after you as fast as I can ; 
and if you find him you holloa to me.” 

So Dudley jumped out and was soon lost to 
sight behind the bushes and hollows that 
fringed the hills. 

Boy drove on busily thinking, and wonder- 
ing if they had done wisely to take the matter 
into their own hands, and come off alone as 
they had done. 

When he at length reached the cave Dudley 
came to meet him with a puzzled face. 


Old Principle 


H5 


“Something has happened, Roy. I can’t 
get into it very far; there’s a lot of earth 
tumbled down and I can’t move it.” 

“ Then old Principle is buried alive ! ” cried 
Roy in terror. “ Quick, Dudley, let us dig him 
out.” 

Dudley seemed quite helpless. 

“ I’ve no spade, and there’s no place near to 
get one. I wish we hadn’t come alone.” 

This was a dilemma, but Roy would not be 
overcome by it. 

“ Let us look about for his tools ; he always 
brings them up with him. Isn’t there enough 
room for me to get in, Dudley ? ” 

Dudley shook his head, and both boys ap- 
proached the entrance. There had indeed 
been a serious landslip, and it was impossible 
to remove the great blocks of stone and earth 
that had fallen without proper tools ; and 
though they searched for some traces of old 
Principle, not a thing belonging to him could 
they find. 

“ Perhaps he may not be here.” 

“I believe he is,” maintained Roy; “and 
we must be as quick as ever we can. Dudley 
you go back in the cart and get some men to 
come and help. I will stay here. How I wish 
we hadn’t come alone ! ” 

Left by himself, Roy did not sit down and 
do nothing. Clambering all amongst the 


146 His Big Opportunity 


fallen earth and stone, he eagerly searched for 
some crevice or opening ; and at last high up 
in the ravine he found one. Then lying down 
flat on the ground he put his mouth to the 
hole. “Old Principle! Hi! Old Principle! 
Are you there ? ” 

It was not fancy that a muffled voice came 
up to him — 

“ Help ! I’m here ! ” 

That gave Koy fresh strength. Eagerly he 
tore aside brambles and stones with small 
thought of his scratched, bruised hands, and at 
last had the satisfaction of viewing a hole big 
enough to drop his slim little body through. 
Then he called again, 

“ Old Principle, I’m coming down from the 
top. Are you hurt ? Can you tell me if it is 
far to fall ? ” 

And this time old Principle’s voice sounded 
clearer : 

“ God help you, laddie ! For I can’t help 
you or myself. Ho it is not a very big drop 
from where you are.” 

For one moment Koy looked at the dark 
chasm below him with hesitation, then he 
murmured to himself, “ If I break my other 
leg, I must get to him— poor old Principle.” 

And then carefully and cautiously he let 
himself down, clinging with his hands to a 


stout twig of mountain ash that bent and 
swayed across the crevice with his weight. 

Another moment and leaving go of the 
friendly branch, he dropped on damp fresh 
soil, and found himself in almost total dark- 
ness. Then as his eyes got more accustomed 
to it, he saw the prostrate form of old Princi- 
ple only a yard or two away from him. The 
old man was breathing heavily, and his legs 
were completely buried under fallen earth. 

“ Is it Master Roy ? ” he said, as Roy came 
over and took hold of his hand; “ay, you 
shouldn’t have imprisoned yourself with me, 
laddie — I didn’t rightly think of what you 
were doing — I’m — I’m in such pain ! ” 

“ Are you very hurt ? Oh, dear, what can 
I do ? I can’t lift you. Are your legs 
broken?” 

“ I don’t rightly know. If you could shift 
a little of the earth off, may be it would ease 
me ! ” 

Roy looked round and then delightedly 
seized hold of a small shovel. 

“ Your shovel is here. I’ll do it,” he said, 
cheerfully, and then to work* he went. The 
soil was fortunately not heavy to remove, but 
there was a great quantity of it before poor 
old Principle’s legs were liberated. Roy 
toiled on, hot and breathless, longing that help 


148 His Big Opportunity 

should come, his own fatigue forgotten in his 
pity for the helpless old man. 

“Can you lift yourself up, old Principle? 
I really think I’ve got the earth off your legs 
— at least most of it ! ” 

There was a struggle, then a groan. 

“I’m afraid not, laddie. ’Tis the power 
that has quite gone out of them. I’m fearing 
that old Principle will be never roaming the 
hills again, but there ’tis the Lord’s will, and 
He never do make mistakes.” 

“Do you think your legs are broken like 
mine were ? ” 

“ I can’t rightly say. It has seemed a weary 
time since I lay here. Many days and nights 
I suppose — and I’m longing for a drink, but 
thank the Lord, He has sent you to me.” 

“ It is only since yesterday that you have 
been lost. And Dudley has gone back to get 
some men to come. I wish I could get you 
some water, but there’s none here, is there ? ” 

“ I am afraid not.” 

Silence fell on the pair, which was broken 
at last by, — 

“’Tis a good principle to think of your 
mercies when trouble overtakes you. It has 
whiled away the time here, and I can thank 
the Lord with all my heart, that my head and 
hands are uninjured ! ” 

“ How did it happen ? ” asked Hoy. 


Old Principle 


H9 


u I’m afraid I excavated too far and was in 
the midst of unearthing a large boulder of 
stone when I remembered no more — it took 
me so sudden, and when I came to life again I 
thought I was in my bed at home with a ton’s 
weight on my feet. ’Twas good of the Lord 
to give me air — that crevice you came through 
has saved me.” 

“ You said a long time ago you could mend 
anything but broken hearts, but you can’t 
mend broken legs, can you? Or you would 
have mended mine.” 

“Ay, ay, so I would, surely. Ho — the 
mender has turned into a breaker this time, 
’tis a good thing it’s only himself that he has 
broken up.” 

A slight groan escaped him, and Roy softly 
stroked his face, a broken sob escaping him. 

“ Oh, old Principle, how I wish I was strong, 
how I wish I could move you! You aren’t 
broken up ! Don’t say you are. Couldn’t I 
help you to roll over on your back, wouldn’t 
that be better ? ” 

After great effort this was partly accom- 
plished, and then to Roy’s intense relief he 
heard voices above. 

Running to the opening he shouted : 

“ Here we are ! Help us out, or old Princi- 
ple will die ! ” 

But it was some time before the rescue 


150 


His Big Opportunity 


could be accomplished. The opening was 
small enough to let Roy through, but not old 
Principle, and the boy refused to leave the old 
man. Pickaxes and shovels were set heartily 
to work, and after half an hour’s hard toil, the 
old man was gently raised out of his danger- 
ous position, and placed in the cart. Roy was 
put in with him, and Dudley walked by the 
side in silence until they reached the village. 
There was a great stir and excitement over 
their return. Mrs. Selby and their aunt met 
the boys at the entrance of the village, and 
Miss Bertram looked anxiously at Roy’s little 
white set face. 

He could not be torn away from his old 
friend till he heard the doctor’s verdict, and it 
was a far more hopeful one than anybody had 
anticipated. 

“It is a marvellous escape. Hot a bone 
broken, but of course he is terribly bruised and 
shaken, and very stiff.” 

“ I’ll sit with him till we can get a proper 
nurse,” said good-natured Mrs. Selby; “ he seems 
to have no kith or kin belonging to him. It 
will be a lesson to him, for life, I hope, and 
will put a stop to all this delving and digging 
and unearthing what is best left alone. It 
only fosters scepticism in the minds of the 
ignorant, and teaches them to disbelieve their 
Bibles ! ” 


Old Principle 151 

Old Principle looked up with a smile after 
the doctor’s visit. 

“ Is little Master Roy there ? ” 

Roy pressed forward eagerly. 

“ I’m thinking, laddie, that you and Master 
Dudley have had a rare good opportunity of 
saving a poor old man’s life, and he is duly 
grateful to you.” 

But Roy was very near tears. 

“ I’m so glad — so glad your legs aren’t 
broken,” he said, in a quivering voice, “ any- 
thing is better than being suddenly turned into 
a cripple ! ” 

And then bending over him he kissed the 
furrowed brow, and crept out of the room. 


XIV 


HEROES 

Old Principle’s accident was a great event 
in the village. The boys got their fair share 
of praise in his rescue, but their grandmother 
did not see it in such a favorable light. 

“ You ought never to have left your lessons 
without leave, or taken a cart belonging to a 
stranger all unknown to him, or gone off alone 
without telling any one about it. And you 
were shown the folly and uselessness of such a 
proceeding by arriving on the scene and being 
utterly unable to extricate him from his posi- 
tion. If children would realize their weak- 
ness and foolishness more in these days, they 
would develop into better men and women, 
but self-sufficiency and self-conceit are signs of 
the times ! ” 

Every day the boys went to see their friend, 
and even Mrs. Selby allowed that they could 
be quiet and well-behaved in a sick room. It 
was a long time before old Principle regained 
his health, and he seemed to have grown much 
older and feebler since his accident ; but his 
serenity of spirit was undisturbed, and some 
of the neighbors who had before voted him 
152 


Heroes 


*53 


close and cranky, now offered to come and sit 
with him, and learned many a lesson from his 
sickbed. When he was at last able to take his 
place in the shop again, Roy’s mind was at 
ease about him. 

“ I was so afraid he was going to die as long 
as he stayed in bed,” he confided to Dudley : 
“I hope no one will ever die that I like, it 
must be such a dreadful thing to have them 
gone. I think I would rather die first, wouldn’t 
you ? ” 

“We can’t all die first,” said matter-of-fact 
Dudley ; “ somebody must be last.” 

“Well, I don’t think I shall be,” returned 
Roy, “ that’s the best of being weak like I am.” 

But this assurance brought no comfort to 
Dudley. 

A few more labored letters came from Rob, 
and then one that stirred the boys’ hearts after 
he had been about three months away from 
them. It was to say that he was going out to 
India in a draft, and had been allowed three 
days to come and say good-bye to his friends. 

Roy was almost beside himself with excite- 
ment at the prospect of seeing him again ; and 
when the day came, he insisted upon going to 
the station by himself to meet him. Dudley 
perched on the garden wall awaited their 
coming. 

Rob was certainly improved in appearance. 


154 His B'g Opportunity 

He held himself up bravely, but a softened 
light came into his eyes, as Roy, looking 
whiter and more fragile than ever, flung him- 
self into his arms, utterly regardless of all on- 
lookers. 

“Pm right glad to see you, Master Roy,” 
said Rob, in a husky voice. 

“ Oh, Rob, you look so splendid ! And you’ve 
got to be quite a man ! Come on, I’m going 
to drive you home, and we shall be all by our- 
selves. How tell me, are you really and truly 
happy ? ” 

Rob did not answer this question till he was 
in the trap being driven homeward ; then he 
said, slowly, “ Yes, I’m thinking I like it first- 
rate, but ’tis hard in many ways. ’Tis hard to 
keep straight and do the right, when most 
seems to live the other way.” 

“ But most of the soldiers aren’t bad, are 
they ? ” questioned Roy with startled eyes. 

“ They aren’t out and out bad — just careless, 
I reckon, but old Principle would say they’re 
lacking in principle.” 

“ And is it hard being a soldier ? I suppose 
it must be a little. I came across a text I 
thought would just fit you, Rob, the other 
day. ‘Endure hardness as a good soldier of 
Jesus Christ.’ ” 

Rob’s eyes brightened. He seemed strangely 
older and graver in his ways, yet when they 


Heroes 


155 


drove up in sight of Dudley who slipped down 
over the wall, and tumbled himself into the 
trap with them, he made the boys roar with 
laughter with his funny incidents of barrack- 
room life. 

The three days passed only too soon. In- 
numerable were the questions put to the young 
soldier, and Roy’s curiosity about a military life 
was insatiable. 

“Well,” he said at last, “I don’t think I 
should be strong enough to be a soldier, but 
I’m awfully glad you’re one, Rob. And now 
you’ve got your chance in India of doing 
something grand and getting the Victoria 
Cross. The opportunity has come to you, and 
Dudley and I can’t get it, though we’ve tried 
hard. But we have helped to send you out to 
India to do it, Rob, so you won’t fail us, will 
you ? And then when you come back covered 
with medals, you shall live with me and always 
dress in your uniform, so we’ll look forward 
and think of that ! ” 

When Rob departed, he had quite a little 
party of friends to see him off at the station. 
Old Hal, the gardener, Ted, the stable-boy, 
and old Principle were there, and Miss Bertram 
and her nephews were with him to the last. 

“ He’s begun right, and he’ll go on like it,” 
announced old Principle, with emphasis, as the 
train steamed out of the station, and Rob 


156 His Big Opportunity 

leaned out of the window to wave a last fare- 
well to his friends. “ ’Tis the beginnin’ of 
life that boys make such a mess of, as a 
rule ! ” 

Roy’s eyes were tearful as he watched the 
train disappear. 

“I’ve given him to the Queen,” he said, 
gravely, to his aunt ; “ and no one can say I’m 
^selfish, for I’d much rather have had him stay 
with me. But as I can’t do anything grand, 
he must do it for me ! ” 

The day after Rob left them, the boys had 
an invitation to spend the day with Roy’s 
guardian, General Hewton. He did not often 
ask them over to see him, so it was considered 
a great treat, and they set off in high spirits. 
The groom drove them over, and they were 
shown into the general’s study at once upon 
their arrival. He was not by himself ; another 
grey-haired gentleman was seated there smok- 
ing, and the boys wondered at first who he 
was, but General Hew ton soon enlightened 
them. 

“ This is a very old chum of mine, boys, who 
was in my regiment with me when I first en- 
listed ; he has been a hero in his time, so if you 
make up to him he will tell you some wonder- 
ful stories. How, Manning, these boys are 
smitten with the ‘ scarlet fever ’ at present, as 
a young friend of theirs has just enlisted. Tell 


Heroes 


l 5 7 

them something about the Crimea; you had 
plenty of ghastly experiences there.” 

Colonel Manning laughed as he met the 
boys’ admiring gaze, and before long he was 
enchanting them by his reminiscences. 

“Now will you tell us the very bravest 
thing that you ever saw any soldier do ? ” de- 
manded Roy, with flushed cheeks and spark- 
ling eyes. 

Colonel Manning looked at his little auditor 
rather thoughtfully. 

“ I’ve seen a good many brave deeds done,” 
he said, slowly; “but one stands out in my 
memory above and beyond them all.” 

“ Oh, do tell us.” 

“It was quite a young lad, a recruit that 
came to join our regiment when we were in 
Malta. He was a fair, curly-headed boy, and 
seemed quite frightened at the rough life and 
ways of his comrades. I happened to be 
orderly officer one evening, and was going my 
rounds, when I passed one of the barrack- 
rooms just before lights were out. It was in 
a low building and the windows were open. 
The men were noisy, and the first thing I 
heard was a volley of oaths from one of the 
oldest soldiers there. The corporal in charge 
instead of reproving him, was joining in, and 
there was a great dispute between a lot of 
them about some small matter, when this 


158 His Big Opportunity 

young chap stood up with a flush on his 
cheeks. ‘ Comrades,’ he cried ; 4 would any of 
you allow your mother to be called evil names 
in the barrack-room ? ’ His voice rang out so 
clearly that there was a hush at once, and they 
turned to him in wonder. ‘You know you 
wouldn’t,’ he went on ; ‘ and you are ill-treat- 
ing the name of One who is dearer and nearer 
to me than any mother — the best Friend I’ve 
got. I tell you, I won’t allow you to do it 
while I am in the room ! ’ I remember as I 
stood there and heard him, and saw the men 
utterly abashed before the boy, I felt he had 
a courage that none of us could equal.” 

“ Is that all?” asked Dudley, with disap- 
pointment in his tone. 

<£ Did the men stop swearing ? ” asked Roy. 

“ As far as I can remember, they did. The 
corporal rebuked them, and lights were put 
out, but that boy was braver than many a hero 
on the battlefield.” 

The boys’ faces fell. 

“ But that was not what we call a brave 
deed,” said Roy, at length. “ Of course it 
was splendid of him, but it wouldn’t get him 
the Victoria Cross.” 

“Ho, only a crown of everlasting life, and 
a word of commendation from the King of 
Kings,” said the colonel, in a strangety quiet 
voice ; but Roy’s expressive little face kindled 


Heroes 


'59 


at once, and he said no more. They went into 
the dining-room to lunch soon, and the boys 
were too busy enjoying the good things before 
them to talk much to their elders. After it 
was over General Newton sent them out for a 
run in the garden. And then when they came 
in, he asked them if they would like to come 
upstairs to his old picture gallery. 

“ I am going to take my friend up, and you 
can come, too.” 

The boys were delighted ; they had often 
heard of this gallery, but had never been in 
it as General Newton kept it locked up, and 
very rarely opened it. 

“ I have some gems amongst the portraits,” 
he said to Colonel Manning as he unlocked a 
door in the passage, and led them into a long 
dusky corridor; “ I will pull up the blinds 
and then we shall see. They are mostly an- 
cestors, but one or two are by master hands, 
and two or three royal personages are amongst 
them.” 

The boys listened eagerly whilst their host 
pointed out one and another, with now and 
then an anecdote connected with them. 

“Look,” said Koy, delightedly, “there’s a 
fine soldier. He is quite young, and yet what 
a lot of medals ! and oh, General Newton, isn’t 
that the Victoria Cross on his coat?” 

“Yes, my boy, he served his country well 


160 His Big Opportunity 

for such a youngster, he fought in eight bat- 
tles, and came home without a scratch, though 
he had many hair-breadth escapes. In one 
battle he had two horses shot under him, and 
he saved the colors on foot, though he was 
leading a cavalry charge.” 

“ He was a regular hero ! ” murmured the 
admiring boys. 

“ I don’t think he was,” said the general, 
drily. “He had plenty of dash and go, but 
no moral courage. He came home after the 
wars were over, and broke his mother’s heart 
by becoming a drunkard and a gambler ; and 
he died an early death from drink and dissi- 
pation.” 

Koy looked very puzzled. 

“I thought a brave man must be a good 
one, and brave and good to the end of his 
life.” 

“ A man can face the cannon’s mouth better 
than a friend’s ridicule,” said General Hew- 
ton; “the young soldier we were hearing 
about before dinner had a nobler courage than 
this poor fellow here.” 

Eoy said no more, but though he listened and 
looked, the rest of the time they were in the 
gallery, his thoughts were with the hero of 
the Victoria Cross. He ran back to have one 
more look at him before they went down- 
stairs, and gazed up at the bold, frank bear- 


Heroes 


161 


ing, and the laughing mouth of the soldier, 
with wistful pity in his brown eyes. 

“You served your Queen and country, but 
I expect you left out God,” he said, in a whis- 
per ; then he ran on to overtake the others. 

After an early tea the boys were packed up 
in the trap to come home. 

“Drive home as quickly as you can,” said 
the general to the groom, “ for rain is not far 
olf, and it will not do to let Master Fitz Roy 
get a soaking ; he looks as if a breath of wind 
will blow him away.” 

“ I do hate people talking about me like 
that,” Roy confided to Dudley as they set off 
at a brisk rate; “I might just as well be a 
girl. I often wonder I wasn’t born one for 
all the good that I shall do in the world.” 

“ That’s all stuff,” said Dudley, indignantly ; 
“you’ll be an awfully strong man I expect 
when you grow up, you see if you aren’t ! ” 

Roy shook his head, and was unusually 
silent for some time. They were driving 
through the outskirts of a village when down 
came the rain. The groom wrapped the boys 
up as well as he could, and was urging the 
horse on, when it suddenly shied and came to 
a standstill. Looking down, the groom saw a 
small child seated in the middle of the road, 
almost miraculously preserved from the horse’s 
hoofs. 


162 His Big Opportunity 

“Well, here’s a go,” he muttered; “where 
on earth does it come from, we don’t want no 
delay in such a storm as this ! ” 

The boys had sprung down at once from 
the trap, and were endeavoring to drag the 
child away when it burst into roars of fright 
and anger. 

“ I want mummy — oh, mummy ! ” 

It was a little girl between three and four. 
She had been placidly nursing a doll in the 
middle of the road, and seemed perfectly 
oblivious of wind and rain. 

“ Where do you live ? ” asked Roy, but the 
child only continued to wail for its mother. 

“ Here, Master Roy, you’ll be wet through. 
Come back, and let Master Dudley hoist her 
up to me. We can’t stop all day trying to 
find out where she lives. We’ll take her back 
with us for the time.” 

But this did not please Roy. 

“Ho, we must find her mother; she must 
come from the village we have passed. You 
wait there with the horse, Sanders, and we’ll 
take her back.” 

“ Let Master Dudley do it, then,” said San- 
ders, crossly, “and you get into the trap 
again.” 

This also Roy refused to do. 

“ It’s an opportunity, isn’t it, Dudley ? And 
look she has taken hold of my hand ; you run 


Heroes 


l6 3 

on in front and ask about her at the first cot- 
tage you come to, and I’ll bring her after 
you.” 

Sanders grumbled and growled, but the boys 
did not heed him. Happily the mother of the 
child soon appeared, thanked them profusely, 
and Boy and Dudley clambered up into the 
trap again, both wet through. 

“ You’re a heedless, disobedient pair,” said 
the wrathful Sanders, “ and if I’m blamed for 
your taking to your beds and gettin’ rheu- 
maticky fever and unflammation of the lungs, 
it won’t be my fault, and I shall tell the 
missus so ! ” 


XV 


AN UNWELCOME PROPOSAL 

Roy was not well for some time after this 
episode. He had a bad bronchial attack, and 
was in the hands of his old nurse again. 

“ It do seem as if everything conspires to 
make you a delicate lad,” she said one day ; 
“ it beats me how you come through it as well 
as you do ! But ’tis mostly your thoughtless 
ways that leads you into trouble.” 

“ I’m sorry,” Roy said, cheerfully ; “ but I 
expect I’m stronger than I look. I never shall 
be much of a fellow, I know ; but even with 
my cork leg I can do a good deal, can’t I ? ” 

“ You’re worth two of Master Dudley ! ” 
ejaculated the fond nurse, but this assertion 
was of course questioned. 

“ I shall never be like Dudley, never ! Hot 
in looks, or strength, or goodness. He is 
better than I am all round ! ” 

Miss Bertram came into the room at this 
moment. 

“ Ah, nurse,” she said, in her bright, brisk 
way ; “ he is like a cat, isn’t he ? Has nine 
lives, I’m sure. There never was such a boy 
for getting into scrapes. I’m in fear when- 
164 


An Unwelcome Proposal 165 

ever he is out of our sight now that he may 
never come back again.” 

“Now, Aunt Judy, you wouldn’t have liked 
me not to have got out to that baby ? ” 

“ I should like some one else to have done it.” 

“Yes, I suppose Dudley would have done 
it,” and Roy’s tone was a little sad ; “ but you 
see I wanted to help. As he was saying to me 
this morning, he will have many more chances 
than I when he gets bigger and goes out to 
India to do good to people. I shall have to 
stop at home now, for I shall never be able to 
ride, he will have all the big opportunities, and 
I must be content with the little ones.” 

“You talk like a little old grandfather, 
sometimes,” said Miss Bertram, laughing, as 
she sat down beside him. “ You must make 
the most of David while he is with you, for I 
have heard from his stepfather this morning, 
and he wishes him sent to school at once.” 

Roy’s eyes opened wide. 

“ But I shall go too, shan’t I, Aunt Judy ? ” 

“ I am afraid not just yet. You are not fit 
to rough it ; besides we couldn’t lose both our 
boys ! ” 

“ But I must go if Dudley goes, I must ! ” 
and Roy’s tone was passionate now. “ I won’t 
have him go away from me — I’ve lost Rob, 
and that is bad enough — You wouldn’t take 
Dudley away from me, too, Aunt Judy ! ” 


i66 


His Big Opportunity 


“Hush, hush, we will not talk any more 
about it now. He will not go till after Easter, 
and that won’t be here yet.” 

Miss Bertram was sorry she had broached 
the subject, when she saw Roy’s distress, and 
going downstairs sent Dudley up to play with 
him. 

Later on when she was sitting with her 
mother in the drawing-room a small head ap- 
peared. “ May I come in, granny ? ” 

It was Dudley, and his round and rosy face 
was unusually solemn. Marching in he took 
up his position on the hearth-rug, his back to 
the fire, and with his hands deep in his pockets, 
he turned his face rather defiantly toward his 
grandmother. 

“ Granny, I’m not going to school without 
Roy.” 

“ Hoighty-toity ! What next, I wonder. 
Is that the way for little boys to speak to 
their elders. You will do what you are told 
as long as you are in my house, as your father 
did before you.” 

“ It is your stepfather’s wish,” put in Miss 
Bertram ; “ you ought to be willing to obey 
him.” 

“ Hot if he tells me to do something wrong. 
And I’m sure it would be quite a wrong thing 
for me to go away from Roy. We have prom- 
ised never to leave each other till we grow up, 


An Unwelcome Proposal 167 

and we don’t mean to break our promise. 
And, granny, I’m sure you don’t like broken 
promises. Father doesn’t know about Roy, 
and he can’t understand like I do, and it would 
be very wrong of him if he took me away 
from Roy ! ” 

Mrs. Bertram put on her glasses and in- 
spected her little grandson Avith searching 
eyes. 

“ That is a most disrespectful speech, Dud- 
ley. I shall of course uphold your father’s 
wishes.” 

“But, granny, I can’t leave Roy. It will 
break his heart. You don’t know how he frets 
about his leg. He doesn’t say much and is 
always so cheerful, but he misses me most aAV- 
fully even if I’m away for a day. If he Avas 
Avell and strong, he could get on first-rate, but 
he Avouldn’t get about half so much if I didn’t 
take him. I think he Avould mope and mope 
all by himself. And I don’t think Ave could 
live Avithout each other. You AA r on’t send me 
away, Avill you ? ” 

Tears were filling Dudley’s blue eyes, but 
Mrs. Bertram looked displeased. 

“ In my days, children never thought of ar- 
guing Avith their elders. I think your aunt 
and I are as capable of taking care of Roy as 
you are. Noav leave the room, and do not re- 
fer to the matter again.” 


1 68 His Big Opportunity 

Then Dudley astonished his grandmother by 
the first exhibition of temper that he had ever 
displayed before her. 

“ I won't be separated from Roy. If you 
send me to school, I shall run away, and I shall 
write and tell father the reason ! ” 

A stamp of the foot emphasized this passion- 
ate speech, and then Dudley fled from the 
room, banging the door violently behind him. 

As on a former occasion he now took him- 
self and his grief to old Principle. It was 
early-closing day in the village, and he found 
the old man just locking up his door prepared 
for a ramble. 

“ Come along up to the hills with me, lad- 
die,” he said, after hearing the trouble ; “ there’s 
nothing like fresh air for blowing away a fit 
of the dumps. I am going to the cave again 
— will you come with me ? ” 

“ Yes, I will. I’ve been in an awful temper 
in granny’s room, and banged her door. I 
don’t think she’ll ever forgive me ! ” 

“ ’Tis like this, Master Dudley,” said old 
Principle, presently, as they walked over the 
hills together; “ if it’s right for you to go, 
there’s nothing to be said, and you must fall in 
with it whether you like it or no.” 

“ But it can’t be right for me to leave Roy 
when he wants me.” 

“ It may be the best thing in the world for 


An Unwelcome Proposal 169 

him and yon, if it is to be. ’Tis a bad princi- 
ple to determine whether a thing is right or 
wrong, according to our liking.” 

“ It’s a cruel thing to part us ! ” said Dudley, 
doggedly. 

“ But may be a way will be found out of the 
difficulty by Master Boy going with you.” 

“ They say he isn’t strong enough. That 
wetting in the rain has made him bad again.” 

“ Well now I should ask the good Lord to 
make him strong enough. There’s time be- 
tween this and Easter.” 

Dudley brightened up at once. 

“ Do you think he might be strong enough*? 
I should be able to take great care of him, and 
I would, too. And he’s so plucky, that I’m 
sure the other boys would be good to him.” 

The cave was reached, and in the interest of 
watching excavation going on Dudley was 
soon his bright self again. 

He came home radiant, with a match-box 
full of tiny shells for Boy who was waiting 
for him in the nursery. 

“ You have been away a time,” he said, 
wearily : “ I’m sure I’m well enough to go out 
now. I can’t bear the winter. It means so 
many colds and aches.” 

“ Well, you’re going to get better very soon, 
and look here, old chap ! If you try your very 


170 His Big Opportunity 

best, perhaps the old doctor will give you leave 
to come to school with me after Easter.” 

Roy’s eyes sparkled at the thought. 

“ Nurse always makes such a molly-coddle 
of me, and so does granny ; but I’ll try as hard 
as I can to be better.” 

44 And now just look at these ! Old Principle 
says these show that the sea must have washed 
up amongst the hills and into his cave hun- 
dreds of years ago, for these belong to salt 
water fish not river ones. Look at them ! 
4 Fossils ’ he calls them, they’re shells made out 
of stone. He told me I might give you these 
from him. I thought he would never go back to 
his cave again after last December, but he 
says he feels so much stronger now ; and he is 
very careful how he digs; he won’t let me 
come near him while he does it. And he told 
me he has been busy writing a paper which 
he is going to send to some society in London 
—I forget its name. He is what you call a 
discoverer, isn’t he ? ” 

Roy nodded, then asked anxiously : 

44 Dudley, were you rude to granny before 
you went out ? Aunt Judy came to look for 
you here, and she said she hoped you were 
going to beg granny’s pardon for something.” 

44 I’ll go now, I had almost forgotten.” 

And Dudley trotted off to his grandmother’s 
room. She received him sternly, but he was 


An Unwelcome Proposal 171 

so abjectly penitent that she soon forgave him, 
and he returned to Roy with a relieved mind. 

“ It’s a dreadful thing to have a temper,” he 
remarked, as he sat upon the nursery table 
swinging his legs to and fro ; “I’ve given granny 
an awful headache by the way I banged her 
door.” 

“ What was it about ? ” asked Roy, with in- 
terest. 

“ About school,” was the answer ; “ I told 
her I wasn’t going away from you.” 

“ I’ve been thinking of it a lot,” said Roy, 
with a sigh ; “ but you’ll have to go, and I 
shall get on pretty well without you. You 
see a boy with one leg wouldn’t be much good 
amongst a lot of other boys. They would 
only call him a cripple and push him aside. I 
shouldn’t like them to laugh at me. The only 
thing for me is a cripple school. Nurse has a 
little grandson at one. I don’t much care for 
cripples, those I’ve seen seem very poor crea- 
tures with no fun in them, but of course Ihn 
one myself now ; only I don’t feel like it.” 

“ You’re no more a cripple than I am,” was 
Dudley’s indignant rejoinder, “why no one 
would tell anything was the matter with you 
to look at you.” 

“We won’t talk any more about it,” said 
Roy, “ I’m hungry and I hear tea coming.” 

But both the little hearts were very full of 


172 His Big Opportunity 

a possible separation, and for some days after 
it lay like a heavy nightmare on them. Then 
a letter arrived from Rob which turned the 
current of their thoughts. It was his first let- 
ter from India, and the boys looked at the 
foreign stamps and paper, as if it were the 
greatest rarity on earth. 

“ My dear Master Roy : 

“ I write to tell you we are safely here 
and I am quite well as I hope you are. It is 
very hot, but we don’t do much work in the 
middle of the day and I like the place. I wish 
you could see the flowers and the black men 
and the funny houses and the colored dresses 
of the people. I am getting on, I hope, and 
my sergeant told me the other day I might 
get the stripe soon if I liked. I will keep a 
lookout as you told me for Master Dudley’s 
father, but they say India is a bigger place 
than England, which I don’t believe, for we’re 
the grandest nation in the world, and the big- 
gest and the best, all of us in the barrack- 
room agree to that. I saw a scorpion to-day 
which pinches when it catches you and draws 
the blood awful. There is a mountain battery 
with us now, and they use mules instead of 
horses, the hills are higher than those at home 
and it’s hard work going up. There is not 
any fighting yet, but I am ready for it when 


>73 


An Unwelcome Proposal 

it comes, and will do my duty to the Queen 
and you. My chum has helped me write this 
letter and I hope it pleases you. I am trying 
to endure hardness. Good-bye, Master Roy, 

“ Your faithful Rob. 

“ God bless you.” 

‘ That’s a much nicer letter, isn’t it ? ” said 
Roy, in great delight ; “ that is quite as long 
as the one I sent him. I hope he will get 
some fighting soon.” 

“ Supposing if he does, and gets killed ? ” sug- 
gested Dudley. 

But Roy put this thought away from him. 

“ I’ve known such lots of soldiers in books 
that come home, that I think he will. Besides 
God will take care of him. Do you remember 
the picture gallery at the general’s the other 
day, Dudley ? ” 

“Yes, what about it ? ” 

“ I was thinking about that soldier there 
with all his medals who broke his mother’s 
heart ; and then about the soldier boy the gen- 
eral said was the bravest. I suppose I would 
rather Rob was properly brave like that, than 
do great things in battle ; but I should think 
he might do both, don’t you think so ? ” 

And Dudley nodded, adding, “Rob won’t 
drink or gamble, I’m quite sure.” 


XVI 


DAVID AND JONATHAN 

Easter came, and to the boys’ great de- 
light Roy was so much stronger that it was 
settled he might accompany Dudley to a pri- 
vate boarding school for one term. Thanks 
were due to Miss Bertram for this arrange- 
ment ; and she had great difficulty in obtain- 
ing her mother’s consent to it. 

“I am sure the boys will get on best to- 
gether; Roy will have a better chance of 
growing strong if he is with Dudley than if 
he is to mope by himself here. If we find he 
does not keep well, we can have him home 
again ; and from all we hear of the school, the 
boys are most carefully looked after.” 

And certainly to judge from Roy’s appear- 
ance and spirits, this plan seemed most success- 
ful. It was a bright morning in April. The 
air was cold but dry, and the old garden was 
sweet with the scent of hyacinths and narcis- 
suses. Bright beds of tulips and polyanthuses 
bordered the green lawn, and old Hal was 
surveying the results of his work with pride 
and satisfaction. Miss Bertram, in her leather 
gloves and garden apron, was busy in and out 
174 


David and Jonathan 175 

of the hothouses ; and the boys, after scam- 
pering round in every one’s way, had at last 
scrambled up to their favorite seat on the gar- 
den wall. 

“ This time next week we shall be at school,” 
said Dudley ; “ how funny we shall feel ! ” 

“We shan’t be able to climb walls there, I 
suppose.” 

“On half-holidays, perhaps we shall. It 
isn’t all lessons ; old Selby told us the happiest 
time of his life was when he was at school.” 

“ I mean to be happy,” said Roy, a smile 
hovering about his lips. 

“ And so do I,” maintained Dudley, stoutly ; 
“ but it will be awfully strange at first. It’s 
like Rob going off to be a soldier. We’re go- 
ing out ‘ to see life ’ nurse says.” 

“ Old Principle wants us to come to tea 
with him before we go. I saw him this morn- 
ing going past our gate. He’ll give us some 
of his good advice like he did Rob, but I don’t 
mind him, he’s such a jolly old chap.” 

There was silence between them for a few 
minutes. Dudley was eating a slice of cake 
which he had brought out of the house with 
him, and Roy was dreamity watching the fig- 
ures of his aunt and the old gardener moving 
about amongst the bright colored flower beds. 

“ Dudley, we’ll always keep friends, won’t 
we?” 


176 


His Big Opportunity 


“ Of course we will.” 

“ But I dare say you’ll have a lot of fellows 
at school who can get about quicker with you 
than I can; and I don’t want to keep you 
back. I only want you to like me still best in 
your heart.” 

“Now look here, old chap ! You know that 
I couldn’t like any other fellow better than 
you. You’re much more likely to have a lot 
of chums than I am, because you’re so clever. 
Look at Rob ; he used to think nothing of me 
at all, and I got to think you didn’t want me 
with you, after he came.” 

“ That was awful rot then, because we two 
are quite different to any other people. Only it 
would be a good thing to have a fresh promise 
together ; a kind of Bible covenant, you know, 
before we go to school.” 

“ All right, here goes, then ! Let us have 
your fists — now then, hear me ! I, Dudley 
Bertram, vow and declare that Fitz Roy Ber- 
tram shall continue to be my dearest and 
nearest chum from this time forth, forever- 
more. Amen.” 

Roy grasped Dudley’s hands eagerly and 
earnestly, and repeated his vow in the same 
words, perhaps with additional emphasis ; then 
with a sigh of relief, he turned to chatter of 
other things. 


David and Jonathan 177 

Shortly after Miss Bertram came up to them 
with a newspaper in her hand. 

“ Granny has just sent out this paper to me, 
boys. She thought you would like to know 
that the troops in the place where Rob is, 
have all been sent out on some expedition 
against a rebel chief in the mountains, so he 
will have some fighting now.” 

“ Hurrah ! ” shouted Dudley, “ don’t I wish 
I was with him ! Does the newspaper men- 
tion his name, Aunt Judy ?” 

“ When shall we have a letter from him ? ” 

“ Not for some time yet, because this is tele- 
graphed. It will be all over before we hear. 
We must hope and pray that Rob may be kept 
safely through it.” 

Miss Bertram looked grave, and the boys 
sobered down at once. 

“But, Aunt Judy, of course fighting is 
dreadful, but it is a soldier’s duty, isn’t it ? ” 

“ And Rob is sure to do his duty.” 

“ Yes, boys, we will hope he will serve his 
Queen as well as he served us whilst here. 
Rob was a good boy : I wish there were more 
like him.” 

And Miss Bertram moved away, whilst her 
little nephews worked off their excitement at 
this news, by jumping down from the wall, 
and performing a mimic battle in the pine 
wood outside. Very eagerly and impatiently 


178 His Big Opportunity 

did they look for a letter before they went off 
to school, but none came ; and the last word 
that Boy said as he was leaving the house 
was, — 

“Mind, Aunt Judy, you send on my letter 
when it comes as quick as lightning ! ” 

It was rather an ordeal for both the boys 
when the last leave-takings of all at home came. 
The old nurse wept profusely, and was only 
comforted by the assurance that she should go 
to her charges on the very first intimation of 
illness. Mrs. Bertram gave them such warn- 
ings against choosing evil companions, and 
becoming depraved in principles, that the boys 
were quite awed and depressed ; and the serv- 
ants, one and all, expressed such pity and 
sympathy for their departure, that Dudley at 
last confided to Boy : 

“ If we were going to prison they couldn’t 
look more shocked and gloomy.” 

General Newton insisted upon taking them 
himself to school. 

“ It looks well,” he said to Miss Bertram, a 
little pompously ; “ for the boys to have a man 
at their back, and I will have a few words 
with the principal myself about Boy’s delicacy 
of constitution. It will come with more force 
from me than from you.” 

So the general was allowed to have his way, 
and by the time the boys were in the train 


David and Jonathan 


179 


with a large packet of sandwiches and cakes 
to while away the time, their spirits rose, and 
they declared that going off to school was 
“ the j oiliest thing out.” 

It was late in the evening when they reached 
their destination. The school was not far 
from the sea, and the clergyman who kept 
it would never have more than thirty boarders ; 
his wife, a sweet-faced gentlewoman, received 
the boys most kindly, and General Newton 
came away satisfied that it would prove a happy 
home as well as a good training for the 
motherless boys. 

Dudley and Roy were not long in making 
themselves at home; their high spirits made 
them general favorites amongst the boys ; and 
even Roy did not feel himself out of place in 
the playground, whilst in the schoolroom he 
proved a quick and intelligent pupil. 

“The boys are happy, mother,” said Miss 
Bertram one morning going into her mother’s 
room and handing her two letters; “and 
Mrs. Hawthorn has written most favorably of 
them both.” 

“I should think so,” said Mrs. Bertram, 
stiffly, who though sternness itself to her 
grandsons was most indignant if any one dared 
to say a word against them to her; “they 
would not be true Bertrams if they were not 
favorites with all.” 


180 His Big Opportunity 

She opened the letters and read — 

“Dear Aunt Judy: 

“It’s our hour for home letters. We 
like it here awfully. Mrs. Hawthorn is a brick, 
she lets me come into the drawing-room with 
her whenever I am tired, but I’ve only been 
in once yet because I like to watch the boys 
play best. I can bowl at cricket and bat too, 
and I give a boy called ‘ Gnat ’ twopence a 
game to do my runs for me. I’m collecting 
birds’ eggs. There’s a boy here who has got 
250 of them. I mean to find a sea gull’s nest, 
and then he’ll swap twenty of his with me for 
one gull’s, because he has never got one yet. 
There is a boy called ‘Simple Simon,’ he 
thinks I am a wonder because I let him run 
pins into my cork leg and never cry out. He 
does not know it’s a sham leg and I shan’t tell 
him. We should like another hamper very 
soon, please. Cook’s gingerbread was A 1. 
Give my love to granny, and tell her I take my 
tonic when I go to bed every night. Give my 
love to nurse. Tell old Principle Mr. Haw- 
thorn would like to know such a clever man 
and see his cave. Send me Bob’s letter 
directly it comes, please. We do drill in the 
gymnasium. 

“ Your loving nephew 

“Fitz Eoy Bertram.” 


David and Jonathan 1 8 1 

“Dear Aunt Judy: 

“ This is an awfully jolly school. I’d 
like you to be one of the boys. We are going 
to have a paper chase next Thursday, and I bet 
I’ll lick some of the chaps at running. Roy 
and I sleep in the next beds to each other. I 
look after him when he will let me, he is top 
of his class and Tom Hunter says he is a plucky 
chap. Hunter is captain of the eleven. We 
go to bathe every morning down by the sea, 
and Hunter says his father is going to give 
him a boat of his own in the summer. There 
is a jolly tuck shop in the town. We can go 
to it every Saturday. There is a boy here 
called ‘ Fishy,’ he wants to be my chum but I 
like one called 4 Cheshire Cat ’ better, but I 
have no chum but Roy. Old Hawthorn only 
canes for lies. A boy got caned last night, 
and blubbered like a baby before he went in. 
I send my love to granny, and all of you. Roy 
expects Rob’s letter every day. 

“ Your loving nephew 

“ Dudley. 

“ P. S. Hunter says our cake has made his 
mouth water for the next.” 


XVII 


ROY’S BIO OPPORTUNITY 

“ Roy, Mrs. Hawthorn wants you. She has 
got some letters for you.” 

Dudley came up excitedly to Roy, directly 
after dinner was over one Saturday afternoon. 

“ And I say,” he continued ; “ bring them 
out and let us go down to the beach to read 
them together. The tide will be out till the 
evening.” 

Roy hastened off, and wondered at Mrs. 
Hawthorn’s grave look. 

“Your aunt has sent me some letters to 
give you, Roy. She has only just received 
them herself. They are about your friend in 
India.” 

“From Rob?” said Roy, with sparkling 
eyes. “ Oh, I thought he never would write. 
How jolly ! And I see his writing, that’s my 
letter.” 

He held out his hand eagerly but Mrs. Haw- 
thorn laid her hand on his shoulder gently. 

“Yes, that was a letter he wrote to you be- 
fore the fighting. Your aunt has heard since 
— from a nurse who nursed him.” 

Something in her tone frightened Roy. 

182 


Roy’s Big Opportunity 183 

“ Has he been wounded ? He is well again, 
isn’t he ? ” 

“He is quite well now,” she said, in a 
hushed voice. 

Bor a minute Roy gazed at her, with horror 
and doubt dawning in his dark eyes, then 
snatching the letters out of her hand he rushed 
out of the room ; and seizing hold of Dudley 
in the hall he exclaimed almost frantically : 

“ Dudley, something awful has happened to 
Rob, let us get away from the house and 
read these letters.” 

He held them tightly in his hand, and would 
not let Dudley take them from his grasp, till 
they reached the beach. 

Then sitting down and leaning against an 
old weather-beaten rock, Roy, with trembling 
fingers, first unfolded Rob’s letter to himself. 

“ My dear Master Roy : 

“We are going up to the mountains to- 
morrow to fight. The men say it will be stiff 
work, driving an old chief from his strong- 
hold. Some of them don’t like it, but I am 
ready. I am a better writer now, I hope, so 
want to tell you what I never have yet. I do 
thank you with all my heart for being so kind 
to a homeless lad and taking him in and giv- 
ing him a happy home. And I thank you 
much more for teaching him to read and write 


184 His Big Opportunity 

and giving up your playtime to get him on. 
But if I was to thank you for a hundred years, 
I couldn’t thank you enough for telling me 
about my Saviour and showing me the way to 
heaven. Every word you ever said is sticking 
to me. I mind all our talks, and if I may 
have had some rough times in trying to serve 
God first, I have been as happy as a king. 
And I have found that the Lord has kept me 
through the worst times, and I love Him with 
all my heart. When I get to heaven I shall 
be able to thank you proper. I do feel thank- 
ful to you and Master Dudley. And now 
good-bye and God bless you. 

“Your faithful Bob forever.” 

Roy read this through. 

“He’s all right, Dudley. What did she 
mean ? Why did she look so funny ? ” 

Dudley shook his head. 

“ I don’t know, read what Aunt Judy says.” 
Roy spread out his aunt’s letter, and read it 
in unfaltering tones to the end. 

“My Poor dear Little Jonathan : 

“ If granny were not really very unwell 
I should have come straight off to soften the 
blow to you, but I send the letters which I 
have just received, and I have asked Mrs. 
Hawthorn to explain them to you. You must 


Roy’s Big Opportunity 185 

be comforted by knowing that our dear Rob 
has proved himself a hero and died a hero’s 
death. I know you would like to see the 
nurse’s letter written from the hospital, and I 
also send you one from the major of his regi- 
ment who used to know me years ago. I know 
you will be a brave boy and bear this trouble 
like a man. Tell Dudley to write to me by 
the first post to tell me you have got the let- 
ters safely. 

“ Your loving aunt, 

“Julia Bertram.” 

The letter dropped from Roy’s grasp, and 
he flung himself down on the beach face fore- 
most. 

Dudley sat staring out at the sea without 
speaking. The blow had fallen so heavily, 
and so unexpectedly, that speech was not 
forthcoming. 

At last Roy looked up. 

“ You read the other letters tome, Dudley,” 
he said, in a choked voice. 

And Dudley, with a good deal of hesitation 
and effort interrupted by tears, read out as 
follows : 

“ Dear Madam : 

“I have been asked to write to you 
about Robert White who I am sorry to say 
was brought into the military hospital the 


1 86 His Big Opportunity 

other day dangerously wounded. He lingered 
three days and was perfectly conscious up to 
the last. I never saw a braver or more patient 
lad. He told me all about your goodness to 
him, and his devotion to a little nephew of 
yours was most touching. His name was al- 
ways on his lips. He asked me to tell you the 
circumstances of his death, and added, ‘She 
will tell Master Roy, I have tried to do my 
duty. And I wifi be waiting now in heaven to 
welcome him. I would have liked to be his serv- 
ant, but God wants me, and God comes first.’ 
I heard from his sergeant the details of the 
engagement. A small party of them — White 
among them — had been ordered to go and 
take a certain mountain pass, and their officer 
in command was shot just before they reached 
it. I wish I could give you the account in the 
sergeant’s own words as he told it me. I will 
try. ‘ We were marching up in single file, for. 
the pass was a very narrow one. Through 
the clefts round it, we saw projecting the en- 
emy’s bayonets and spears, and we knew it 
was certain death for the first one in our 
ranks. I led the men, and I tell you, Mum, it 
was a cold-blooded way of meeting one’s 
death, worse than in the fiercest battle fight- 
ing shoulder to shoulder ! I pulled myself to- 
gether, tried to say a prayer and marched on, 
Wondering where I should be the next minute, 


Roy’s Big Opportunity 187 

when suddenly before I knew where I was, 
Corporal White had placed himself in front of 
me. “You are not ready, sergeant,” he said ; 
“ I am, let me take your place.” It wasn’t time 
to stand arguing, but I tell you I felt queer 
when I saw the lad stretched for dead under 
my feet. We had a sharp skirmish, but we 
drove the enemy back, and the first one I 
went to look for was White.’ 

“ The sergeant told me this with a sob in 
his voice ; he added that for months he had 
ridiculed White for his religion and tried to 
drive it out of him. But he came every morn- 
ing to the hospital, and I saw him on his knees 
by White’s bedside, offering up a prayer that 
he might be made a different man. 

44 And now I must try to give you more de- 
tails about White himself. I asked him if I 
could do anything for him the last day he was 
alive and then he asked me to write to you. 
He kept the photo of your little nephew under 
his pillow, and more than once he murmured — 
4 God first, the Queen next, and then Master 
Roy — I’ll be a faithful servant if I can!’ 
Toward evening I saw he was sinking. I said 
4 Are you comfortable, corporal ? ’ and he looked 
up with such a radiant smile : 4 Safe in the 
arms of Jesus,’ he murmured, and those were 
his last words. From what I have heard from 
those who knew him out here, I gather that 


i88 


His Big Opportunity 


his life was a singularly pure and upright one, 
and that young as he was he had influenced 
more than one careless drinking man to turn 
over a new leaf, and be the same as he was. I 
am forwarding his Bible and small belongings 
by this mail. 

“ Believe me, dear madam, 

“ Yours faithfully, 

“ Rose Smith — Sister in Charge.” 

Roy listened to this with breathless interest, 
his eyes shining through his tears. 

“ Oh, Dudley, how splendid ! oh, Rob, you 
have been a brave soldier, but I shall never, 
never see you again ! ” 

Down went the little head and a torrent of 
tears burst forth ; whilst Dudley laying his 
curly head against his cousin’s joined him in 
his weeping. One more letter remained to be 
read and this was the major’s — 

“ Dear Miss Bertram : 

“Having heard from you that one of 
my men was a protege of yours, I take the 
opportunity of saying a word for the poor 
young fellow. He has been an exemplary 
character since he came into the regiment, and 
has, I hear, been a general favorite from his 
extreme good nature, in spite of being a re- 
ligious lad. His influence was felt by all his 


Roy’s Big Opportunity 189 

comrades who came in contact with him, and 
I feel we have lost a smart and promising sol- 
dier. The sister in the hospital tells me she is 
writing particulars of his death. My sergeant 
is very much cut up over it. 

44 With kind regards, % 

“ Believe me, yours truly, 

“ W. A. Aldridge — Major.” 

“ And that’s all,” said Dudley, mournfully ; 
“ why, I can’t believe Rob is dead — we never 
knew he was ill.” 

Roy took up the letter, and read through 
Rob’s again. Then he looked across the blue 
ocean in front of him. 

44 Just read me that bit of the nurse’s letter 
of the fight, Dudley. Can’t you think of him 
marching up to the enemy ? ” 

Dudley read the desired bit, and then with a 
deep drawn breath Roy said : 

44 He acted out the song of the drummer 
boys, didn’t he ? He marched on to meet his 
death like they did. I wonder how it felt. 
Could you have put yourself in front of the 
sergeant, Dudley ? ” 

44 If you had been the sergeant, I could,” was 
the prompt reply. 

44 But the sergeant hadn’t been kind to him. 
Oh, Rob, Rob.” 

44 Don’t cry so, old chap, you’ll make your- 


190 


His Big Opportunity 


self ill. He’s happy now. Don’t you think 
we’d better be going in ? ” 

But Boy would not leave the beach till the 
tea bell sounded, and then he crept in with 
such a white, weary face that kind Mrs. Haw- 
thorn put him straight to bed, and stayed with 
him listening to his trouble till tired out and 
exhausted he fell asleep. When Dudley came 
to bed he found him clutching the letters tight 
in one hand, and muttering in his sleep, “ God 
first, the Queen next, and then Master Boy ! ” 
Once in the night he was roused by Boy’s 
grasping hold of his bedclothes. 

“ Dudley, are you asleep ? ” 

“ Ho,” was the sleepy answer, “ aren’t you 
well ?” 

“ Yes, but I can’t sleep. Tell me, was it my 
fault? Did I send Bob to his death? I 
wanted him to go. Did I make him go ? ” 

“ Of course you didn’t,” and Dudley now 
was wide-awake. “ He wanted to go first, and 
you didn’t like it, don’t you remember ? ” 

“ Yes, I think he liked going ; but if he 
hadn’t heard that song perhaps he would never 
have gone, he would never have wanted to be 
a soldier.” 

“ He did a lot of good out there. I don’t 
think he will be sorry now.” 

Boy settled down to sleep again comforted ; 
but for the next few days he seemed quite un- 


Roy’s Big Opportunity 191 

able to give his mind to his lessons, and after 
some correspondence with Miss Bertram, it 
was arranged that he and Dudley should go 
home from Saturday to Monday. It was a 
sad home-coming, and when Boy saw Rob’s 
Bible his grief burst out afresh. The pages 
showed how much they had been studied, but 
no verse was more marked than the one Roy 
had given him. “ Endure hardness as a good 
soldier of Jesus Christ.” 

On Sunday evening the boys paid a visit to 
old Principle. They had been talking about 
Rob, when Roy said wistfully, 

“ Rob used his opportunity when he got it, 
didn’t he ? I expect he didn’t know what a 
hero he was. I wonder if I shall ever get one 
come to me. I should like to do something 
great for God, and great for my country. I 
shall never give up wishing for a great oppor- 
tunity to come to me ! ” 

Then old Principle spoke, and his tone was 
very solemn : 

“ ’Tis not I that will make you proud and 
uplifted, laddie, but you have been given the 
grandest opportunity that ever a poor mortal 
could be given, and you’ve taken it and made 
use of it, thank the Lord ! ” 

Both boys gazed up at him with open eyes 
and mouths. 

Dudley said after a minute’s thought : 


192 His Big Opportunity 

“ We’ve both had some little opportunities, 
and Boy has had the biggest. He saved me 
from drowning, and he went into the cave to 
fetch you ! ” 

“ Those weren’t proper opportunities,” mut- 
tered Boy in scorn, “they aren’t worth re- 
membering ; not after what Bob has done.” 

“ Yes, the opportunity I’m talking of was a 
grander one than them, though old Principle 
can’t forget he owes his life perhaps to both 
of you boys’ thought of him. ’Tis what the 
Lord Himself left His throne in heaven for,” 
the old man proceeded in the same solemn 
tones ; “ ’tis the one thing, the only thing we’re 
told brings joy to the happy ones above ; nay 
to the Almighty Himself, and ’tis wonderful 
that He will let us have the part in it we do ! ” 

“ What do you mean ? ” questioned Boy 
awed and puzzled by old Principle’s manner. 

“ I mean this, laddie, you had an opportu- 
nity of leading an ignorant soul to the feet of 
his Saviour ; of enlisting a soldier not only in 
the Queen’s service but in the service of the 
King of Kings ; of being the means of filling 
an empty barren soul with a flood of light and 
gladness ; and of sending out a missionary in 
the midst of ungodliness and vice, to turn 
many from the error of their ways. Is it not 
a greater honor to help to save a soul from 
destruction, than bring glory to yourself by 


Roy’s Big Opportunity 193 

some feat of physical strength or skill ? 
Thank the Lord on your knees to-night, that 
He sent you the opportunity you were always 
hankering after ; and thank Him He gave you 
the grace to seize hold of it, and make use of 
it for His Glory, not your own ! ” 

Old Principle’s burst of eloquence almost 
startled the boys, and they received it in 
silence ; but later on, as they were walking 
home in the cool of the evening Roy linked 
his arm in Dudley’s and said softly — 

“I see it all now. My broken leg and 
everything. It was when I was too weak to 
go out with you, that Rob and I used to talk 
over these things.” 

And Dudley replied, with an emphatic nod, 
“Yes, though you didn’t know it, Rob was 
your big opportunity.” 


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